Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on anxiety symptoms in young people: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Psychiatry Research May 7, 2020 Xiang Zhou, Jieyu Guo, Guangli Lu et al.
A meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials with 1,489 participants found that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) significantly reduced anxiety symptoms in young people compared with control conditions (didactic lecture, health education, treatment as usual, didactic seminar, or cognitive behavioral program). The effect was small (standardized mean difference -0.14) and remained significant after adjusting for publication bias. Short-term interventions (less than 8 weeks) showed a significant effect, while longer interventions did not. The authors suggest MBSR is superior to control conditions for treating anxiety in young people and recommend future studies examine long-term intervention effects.