A commentary discusses a study by Shao et al. that adds to evidence of changes in participants who receive formal mindfulness meditation instruction. The commentary traces the field back to Kabat-Zinn's 1982 paper on the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, originally developed for chronic pain patients at an academic medical center. Those participants reported significant reductions in pain, improvements in mood, and fewer medical symptoms. Since then, mindfulness meditation instruction, especially MBSR, has been applied and studied in broadening clinical scenarios and for general health and wellness.
A systematic review of 47 randomized clinical trials with 3,515 participants found that mindfulness meditation programs produce small to moderate reductions in anxiety, depression, and pain compared to active placebo controls. At 8 weeks, anxiety improved with an effect size of 0.38 and depression with 0.30; these benefits persisted at 3–6 months with effect sizes of 0.22 and 0.23 respectively. Pain showed an effect size of 0.33. Evidence for stress/distress and mental health-related quality of life was low. Meditation programs showed no effect or insufficient evidence for positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight, and were not better than drugs, exercise, or other behavioral therapies.