Transcendental Meditation improved quality of life, mood, and perceived stress more than group support for female survivors of domestic violence in a 16-week pilot randomized controlled trial. Forty-two women from metropolitan Adelaide were assigned to either Transcendental Meditation or group support. The meditation group showed significantly greater gains in Australian Quality of Life scores and greater reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress severity. No significant difference was found between groups for PTSD symptom severity. Transcendental Meditation may offer an effective alternative to group support for this population.
An umbrella review of 19 systematic reviews (covering 194 primary studies) found mixed evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) for adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Most reviews were rated critically low quality, and heterogeneity in definitions, intervention parameters, and outcome measures made comparisons difficult. Some promising results were identified, but no definitive conclusion could be reached about MBI's effects on pain, sleep quality, depression, quality of life, physical functioning, or mindfulness. The authors call for more rigorous research with standardized MBI protocols.
A pilot trial tested whether Transcendental Meditation (TM) training could reduce stress and improve quality of life, mood, and cognitive performance in people caring for family members with dementia. Seventeen caregivers were randomly assigned to a 12-week TM program or a wait-list control. The TM group showed significantly greater improvement in response speed on a cognitive test compared to the control group. Changes in other measures of stress, depression, and quality of life did not reach statistical significance, though trends favored TM. Adverse events were mostly mild and transient. Because the study was small, no firm conclusions can be drawn about TM's effectiveness for dementia caregivers.