A 32-year-old woman with mental retardation and dissociative trance disorder killed her five children while in a trance state. The case suggests that psychosocial stressors, trauma, underlying psychiatric conditions, culture, and communication influence trance conditions. Comorbidity between mental retardation and dissociative trance disorder is rarely reported. Further research is needed to understand these disorders and their comorbidity.
A 25-year-old woman with a BMI of 48.8 kg/m2 underwent two sessions of guided meditation monitored with EEG. After 2 weeks, she showed a significant reduction in body weight. EEG changes indicated better vigilance, self-esteem, and a positive state of mind. The authors suggest that the subconscious mind has materializing power and that turning bad habits into healthy activities and food preferences is related to subconscious productivity.
A four-week randomized controlled trial in Surabaya, Indonesia, tested whether mindfulness meditation based on spiritual care could reduce anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the intervention, both the 61-person intervention group and the 61-person control group had severe anxiety (averages 17.28 and 17.18 on the DASS-42). After the intervention, the meditation group's average anxiety dropped to 6.03 (normal range), while the control group's average remained severe at 18.06. The difference between groups after the intervention was statistically significant, indicating that the spiritual-care-based mindfulness meditation effectively lowered community anxiety.