JAMA Internal Medicine
February 16, 2015
David S. Black, Gillian A. O’Reilly, Richard Olmstead et al.
485 citations
A 6-week mindfulness meditation program improved sleep quality more than sleep hygiene education in older adults with moderate sleep disturbances. Participants in the mindfulness group saw their sleep quality scores drop from 10.2 to 7.4 on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, while the education group's scores fell from 10.2 to 9.1, a between-group difference of 1.8 points. The mindfulness group also showed greater reductions in insomnia symptoms, depression symptoms, and fatigue. No significant differences were found for anxiety, stress, or a marker of inflammation, though the inflammation marker declined over time in both groups. The findings suggest that community-accessible mindfulness programs can improve sleep and related daytime impairment in older adults.
Pediatrics
August 24, 2009
David S. Black, Joel Milam, Steve Y Sussman
266 citations
A systematic review of 16 empirical studies from 1982 to 2008 examined the health effects of sitting-meditation practices (mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) in youth aged 6 to 18 years in school, clinic, and community settings. Most study samples consisted of youth with preexisting conditions such as high-normal blood pressure, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning disabilities; studies of physiologic outcomes involved almost entirely African American/black participants. Median effect sizes for physiologic outcomes ranged from 0.16 to 0.29 and for psychosocial/behavioral outcomes from 0.27 to 0.70, slightly smaller than those in adult samples. Sitting meditation appears to be an effective intervention for physiologic, psychosocial, and behavioral conditions in youth, but more rigorous research is needed.
Mindfulness
January 13, 2024
Diana Zhang, David S. Black
People in a residential addiction treatment program who took part in a mindfulness-based intervention practiced meditation about once a day outside of scheduled sessions, with walking meditation being the longest practice (average 20 minutes during the program and 25 minutes at 7-month follow-up). The frequency and duration of meditation during the program predicted continued meditation 7 months later, suggesting that these learned behaviors persist during addiction recovery.
Current Opinion in Psychology
July 11, 2019
David S. Black, Georgia Christodoulou, S. Cole
Social stressors alter immune response gene expression through signal transduction, a process by which extracellular signals trigger intracellular changes. Mindfulness meditation, a practice for cultivating attention and self-regulation, may influence this process by modulating brain activity patterns related to attention, self-regulation, and threat evaluation. The article reviews controlled trials on mindfulness meditation and gene expression, then proposes a conceptual model grounded in social genomics theory. It hypothesizes that mindfulness meditation could alter the signal transduction that regulates immune response gene expression, suggesting a potential mind-body pathway for stress-related cellular changes.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
January 21, 2016
David S. Black, George M. Slavich
A comprehensive review of randomized controlled trials examined whether mindfulness meditation affects biological markers of the immune system. The analysis focused on inflammatory proteins, gene expression, immune cell counts, immune cell aging, and antibody response. The findings suggest possible effects on specific markers of inflammation, cell-mediated immunity, and biological aging, but these results are tentative and require further replication. Substantial heterogeneity across studies in patient populations, designs, and assay procedures limits firm conclusions. Mindfulness meditation may be beneficial for immune system dynamics, but additional research is needed to confirm these effects.