OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
September 18, 2021
Janika Epe, Rudolf Stark, Ulrich Ott
25 citations
Four yogic breathing techniques produce distinct effects on mind and body. Ujjayi breathing, which slows the breath, reduces stress and increases feelings of relaxation and peace. Paced breathing, following a precise slowdown protocol, enhances awareness of inner experiences. Kapalabhati, a mild hyperventilation technique, significantly increases vitality and joy of life. Alternate nostril breathing, which alternates breath between nostrils, showed no changes that matched the study's hypotheses. These techniques influence processes like heart rate variability and the autonomic nervous system, suggesting they could serve as self-regulation tools in therapy.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
May 9, 2020
Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, Anne‐Sophie Nyssen, Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville
22 citations
Hypnosis, a modified state of consciousness, reduces pain perception by re-engaging patients' resources to modulate pain and emotional distress, improving treatment and well-being. Neuroimaging shows hypnosis influences self and environmental consciousness networks, attentional and somatosensorial networks, disengaging subjects from external surroundings and altering body sensations and spontaneous thoughts. This review articulates clinical and neuroimaging findings on hypnosis for external pain stimuli, aiming to clarify mechanisms to guide future randomized controlled studies.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
December 19, 2023
Ting‐fen Lin, D. Linville, Rhonda N. T. Nese et al.
3 citations
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects both physical and mental health, with symptoms like dyspnea worsening anxiety and vice versa. This study tested Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY), a breathwork meditation program, in nine individuals with varying COPD severity. Using single-case multiple-baseline and qualitative methods, it found SKY feasible and acceptable. Results suggest SKY can alleviate aspects of COPD burden related to mind, body, and breath, and reduce the cyclical effect of disease sequelae. Larger trials are needed, but this is the first evidence supporting SKY as a viable complementary approach for COPD.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
March 5, 2025
Gaëtan Collignon, Aminata Bicego, Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville et al.
2 citations
A 68-year-old man with chronic pain from an open Spina Bifida at L4-L5 used auto-induced cognitive trance (AICT) to manage his condition. After four days of training, pain intensity, anxiety, and depression slightly decreased; most attitudes and beliefs improved; the mental component of quality of life improved while the physical component decreased, and the patient reported his overall health had worsened. Qualitative analysis of his diary over two months revealed themes including trance characteristics, pain location, difficulties with practice, and medical history. The findings suggest AICT may alter subjective pain experience, but its effects on physical health and global well-being were mixed.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
June 23, 2025
Angela Cheng, Xanthe Lea, Alice Shires
1 citation
Barriers to meditation in the general population include practical challenges like scheduling difficulties and mental health related challenges such as a busy mind, stress, and anxiety. Key facilitators are manageable goal setting, such as short and regular practice, and mindset changes like a better understanding of meditation goals. Most of the 191 participants did not report significant barriers. The findings can inform public health strategies to integrate meditation into daily life, though the predominantly female sample with prior meditation experience limits generalizability.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
March 2, 2026
Elif Özgen
Movement has historically served as a healing practice tied to meaning-making and social balance. This paper traces the continuity of movement-based performative practices in Turkish health culture, including religious and mystical rituals, folk dances, and music-associated healing traditions. Using a conceptual, historical-comparative, and interpretive framework from performance studies, health anthropology, art therapies, and architectural theory, it examines relationships among ritual, movement, healing, and space. The trajectory from ancient rhythmic body practices to Seljuk and Ottoman hospitals and contemporary complementary health approaches shows continuity of healing through bodily experience and spatial interaction. Ritual components such as rhythm, repetition, breath, and centering can inform design strategies for sensory regulation and emotional balance in wellness spaces. The argument provides a conceptual basis for human-centered, healing-oriented spatial approaches.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
January 7, 2026
Oteja Lightheart, Helané Wahbeh
An online webinar series of four weekly one-hour meditation videos for older adults with depressive symptoms showed significant improvements in self-reported depressive symptoms, pain, sleep quality, well-being, and compassion. Of 138 eligible participants, 42 completed the four-week intervention (32.6%). The study highlights promising results but notes challenges in participant retention and motivation, especially for those with depressive symptoms and older populations needing technical support.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
September 7, 2023
Alberto Dubbini
Western researchers' epistemic and ethical foundations, rooted in a culturally shared idea of therapy, can hinder their understanding of different cultural realities and their knowledge and practices. Examining cases in psychedelic therapy, this paper focuses on obstacles created by ethical and epistemic conflicts in researchers with Western scientific training, who struggle to explore situations induced by psychedelic substances when integrating their therapeutic know-how with that of a centuries-old spiritual tradition like Amazonian mestizo vegetalismo. These obstacles can increase awareness of cultural bias and limitations of the scientific gaze, highlighting the importance of contexts where declared independence, neutrality, and effectiveness of human alert thinking as undebatable values are under discussion.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
May 6, 2022
Zahi Arnon
Integrating hypnosis into psychotherapy can shorten and strengthen the changes that mindfulness aims to produce, addressing challenges such as therapists not being formal mindfulness instructors and patients struggling to complete the standard eight-week mindfulness course. The article explains the rationale for this integration, illustrates it with a case study, and provides the underlying ideas, philosophy, and hypnotic scripts in an appendix.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
January 22, 2026
Edward Caddye, Yuliia Lukianstseva, Richard Aceves et al.
Movement-informed Breathwork (MiB) combines conscious connected breathwork with targeted muscle contraction and relaxation cycles, using biofeedback to enhance autonomic regulation, interoceptive awareness, and somatic-emotional integration. Drawing from neuromuscular torque chain dynamics, fascial research, and sensorimotor trauma therapy, MiB aims to provide a contraindication-free, scalable approach for addressing autonomic dysregulation, emotional trauma, and chronic pain. Sessions range from brief 5-10-minute practices for awareness and downregulation to extended 90-minute sessions for deeper somatic exploration. The approach integrates contemporary neuroscience with traditional breathwork to potentially improve precision and effectiveness of movement-based therapeutic interventions, bridging breathwork, movement therapy, and clinical practice across diverse populations.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
January 15, 2025
Comparing narrative therapy with Buddhist mantra-based meditation reveals both distinctive and shared features that promote mental healing. Narrative therapy shifts attention to families' subjugated stories of strengths and personal agency, while mantra-based meditation uses recitation of a mantra as the focus, unlike breath-focused mindfulness. The five aggregates—body/form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness—are key Buddhist concepts for understanding body-mind interaction and the cycle of suffering. Analyzing these concepts relationally illustrates how a narrative-mantra group approach, using the Vajrāyana Buddhist Energy Mantra integrated with the outsider-witness practice from narrative therapy, promotes healing through relational reflexivity and relational mindfulness.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
March 13, 2024
Ampere A Tseng
A meta-analysis of eight studies found that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) interventions for cancer patients and survivors increased mindfulness by an average of 7.93% and reduced stress symptoms by an average of 22.58%. A regression analysis showed a strong negative correlation between mindfulness and stress, suggesting that increases in mindfulness are associated with decreases in stress. The authors conclude that MBSR is effective for enhancing mindfulness and alleviating stress in this population and recommend its use as a complementary therapy in cancer care.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
December 28, 2022
M. Dethoor, Francois-Benois Vialatte, M. Martinelli et al.
Machine learning analysis of 76 psychiatric outpatients with depressive symptoms found that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is most effective for those with high baseline depression severity (Beck score >25) and high trait mindfulness (FFMQ >90). A separate adherence profile showed that patients completing all 8 MBCT sessions had either high or low trait mindfulness, high or low bodily dissociation, and low self-compassion. The efficacy model correctly classified 75.4% of cases, while the adherence model correctly classified 62.7%. These preliminary results suggest that machine learning could help personalize MBCT delivery, though further research is needed.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
November 5, 2018
Nancy Poirier, Serge Beaulieu, Sybille Saury et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) strongly reduced psychic anxiety in people with bipolar disorder, especially those who were anxious or depressed before starting, but had no effect on somatic anxiety. Sleep quality and quality of life improved moderately. A slight increase in depressive, anxious, and manic symptoms was noted at week six of the eight-week program. Participants who completed at least half the sessions showed the benefits, and after treatment, initially anxious participants no longer differed from non-anxious ones.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
October 7, 2018
Paul A. Barclay, Clint A. Bowers
A brief pilot study tested Meditation Deathmatch, an open-source meditation video game, with 42 U.S. undergraduate students aged 18-20. After a single session, participants showed significant decreases in state anxiety and consistent improvements in game score across trials. They also rated the game's usability highly. The findings suggest that game-based meditation training may be an effective way to encourage meditation practice and reduce anxiety, warranting further comparison with traditional methods and potential use in treating anxiety disorders.
OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
August 20, 2018
Selma A. Quist Møller, Sohrab Sami, S. Shapiro
A systematic review of randomized-controlled trials found that self-compassion-based interventions (SCBIs) produce psychological and clinical improvements across several outcomes and populations, particularly in females. Significant gains included increased self-compassion and body satisfaction among non-clinical female participants and clinical improvements in people with diabetes, binge-eating disorder, and schizophrenia. One study combining SCBIs with mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in an all-female sample with overweight and obesity showed significantly increased quality of life and reduced psychopathological symptoms. However, evidence remains preliminary; more rigorous trials are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn about health benefits or the value of SCBIs as adjuncts to MBIs.