Clinical Trials of Meditation Practices in Health Care: Characteristics and Quality
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine December 1, 2008 Maria B. Ospina, Kenneth Bond, Mohammad Karkhaneh et al. 140 citations
A systematic review of 400 clinical trials on meditation (published 1956-2005) found that most studies have poor methodological quality, with significant threats to validity across all major quality domains. The five broad categories of meditation practices studied were mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, yoga, t'ai chi, and qigong. The most common clinical conditions examined were hypertension, miscellaneous cardiovascular diseases, and substance abuse. Although methodological quality has improved over time by 0.014 points per year, future trials must be more rigorous in design, execution, analysis, and reporting.