Integration of Transcendental Meditation® (TM) into alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment.
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment April 1, 2018 Jan Gryczynski, Robert Schwartz, Marc J Fishman et al.
Integrating Transcendental Meditation into inpatient treatment for alcohol use disorder is feasible and acceptable. Among 60 meditation-naïve adults, those who practiced TM twice daily as recommended were less likely to return to any drinking (25% vs. 59%) or heavy drinking (0% vs. 47%) after discharge. Greater regularity of TM practice was associated with lower stress, psychological distress, craving, and alcohol use at three-month follow-up. However, the TM and treatment-as-usual cohorts did not differ significantly overall; only consistent practice, not merely learning TM, predicted better outcomes.