International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
September 17, 2022
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
17 citations
All four 8-week treatments—mantra meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined—similarly improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance in adults new to yoga and meditation. These benefits persisted at 2- and 12-month follow-ups despite declining home practice. Mantra meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, while adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The findings suggest that mantra meditation is the central component driving improvements in interoception, self-awareness, and embodied processing, even though it negatively influenced affect on its own.
Journal of Clinical Medicine
May 31, 2023
Karin Matko, Meike Burzynski, Maximilian Pilhatsch et al.
5 citations
An 8-week yoga-based mind-body intervention, Meditation-Based Lifestyle Modification (MBLM), reduced pain intensity and improved quality of life and pain self-efficacy in most of 17 women with chronic back pain, fibromyalgia, or migraines. The largest improvement was in pain self-efficacy, followed by average pain intensity and quality of life, with a smaller effect on most severe pain. Responses varied among participants, suggesting the intervention helps many but not all. The authors call for larger controlled trials and further exploration of yoga's ethical and philosophical aspects.
Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine
June 1, 2024
Holger C Bringmann, Anne Berghöfer, Michael Jeitler et al.
3 citations
A meditation-based lifestyle program (MBLM) increases spirituality more than standard therapy in patients with mild-to-moderate depression. Among 81 patients, those who began with an interest in spirituality or who already practiced spiritual mind-body activities showed greater improvement in depression severity after six months. Patients who regularly performed such practices benefited equally from either the meditation program or standard treatment, while those who did not engage in spiritual mind-body practices fared worse with standard therapy alone. The findings suggest that incorporating spiritual practices into depression treatment may be especially helpful for patients who are not already engaged in them.
September 15, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
3 citations
preprint
A single-case multiple-baseline study with 57 healthy, inexperienced yoga practitioners tested how different combinations of yoga components—mantra meditation, physical postures, and ethical teachings—affect body awareness, emotion regulation, affectivity, self-compassion, and distress tolerance. All four treatments (meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined) improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance to a similar extent. Meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, whereas adding ethical education enhanced positive valence most, and adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The authors suggest mantra meditation is the core driver of improvements in interoception and self-awareness, despite its negative influence on daily affect.
Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine
June 1, 2024
Hannah Maja Figura, Felix Joyonto Saha, Sonja Seibt et al.
A 21-day online meditation course based on the expansion method showed potentially beneficial effects on mental health, with medium-sized improvements in mental health, flourishing, and negative affect after one month, and small improvements in physical health, stress, positive affect, self-efficacy, spirituality, and mysticism at three months. The study included 359 participants, mostly German women with an average age of 51, and the course content was positively evaluated. These findings suggest the intervention may support mental health, but randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm effectiveness.
Journal of Clinical Medicine
August 4, 2022
Karin Matko, Anne Berghöfer, Michael Jeitler et al.
People differ in how much they benefit from mind-body practices like meditation and yoga. In an eight-week study of 57 healthy beginners, those with high anxiety, high absorption, low spirituality, low openness, and younger age showed greater improvements in wellbeing and decentering and less mind wandering. Adding ethical education consistently boosted wellbeing, while adding physical yoga reduced mind wandering. Cluster analysis revealed that participants with more maladaptive personality traits improved their emotion regulation skills the most. These findings suggest that tailoring mind-body interventions to individual characteristics may enhance their effectiveness.
Journal of Affective Disorders Reports
September 17, 2021
Holger C Bringmann, Aline Sulz, Philipp Ritter et al.
Adding mantra meditation to usual inpatient care for major depression led to greater reductions in clinician-rated depression severity than adding progressive muscle relaxation. At 3-month follow-up, the mantra meditation group scored about 4.8 points lower on the MADRS depression scale, and at 6-month follow-up about 6.2 points lower, both differences favoring mantra meditation. Self-reported depression did not differ significantly between groups after treatment. The benefit appeared mainly in mood rather than cognitive symptoms. The study involved 123 inpatients at a psychiatric hospital who were diagnosed with major depression.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
Adding ethical education to mantra meditation produced the largest increases in well-being, while combining meditation with physical yoga reduced stress the most. In an eight-week program with 42 healthy adults who had no regular yoga or meditation practice, those who received meditation plus ethical education showed well-being gains (Tau-U = 0.30/0.23), followed by meditation plus physical yoga (Tau-U = 0.12). Meditation alone showed no change in well-being (Tau-U = 0.07). Stress decreased most with meditation plus physical yoga (Tau-U = -0.40) but increased slightly with meditation alone (Tau-U = 0.17). These results indicate that combining meditation with other yoga components produces differential and incremental benefits.