A pilot intervention to reduce burnout and enhance resilience through transcendental meditation among Georgetown University medical students.
Chloé Jammes, Isaac Heiman, Hakima Amri
BMC Medical Education April 3, 2025 DOI: 10.1186/s12909-025-07004-1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Pre-post intervention study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 39 |
| Population | Medical students at Georgetown University School of Medicine |
| Intervention | Transcendental Meditation |
| Dose | 20 min twice a day |
| Duration | 3-month intervention |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Academic stress Anxiety and depression Medical students Resilience and wellbeing Transcendental meditation tm |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Transcendental Meditation practice significantly reduced emotional exhaustion and increased resilience in medical students over three months. |
Abstract
Rates of burnout, depression, and anxiety among healthcare workers are at historically high levels and have remained high in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As aspiring physicians, medical students are the future of the healthcare profession. The practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been shown to reduce burnout and stress in diverse populations, including healthcare professionals. To date, no data have been published on the benefits of TM for medical students. Our objective was to assess the efficacy of TM practice in reducing burnout and increasing resilience among medical students at Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUSoM) over three months between October 2022 and May 2023. Forty-two GUSoM medical students qualified for and enrolled in the study. Thirty-nine students completed three months of TM training and practice, with the recommended regimen of meditating for 20 min twice a day. The students were assessed at baseline, one month, and three months using measures of burnout, depression, anxiety, insomnia, well-being, and resilience, of which burnout (emotional exhaustion) and resilience were the primary outcomes. Two-tailed paired-sample t-tests were used to determine the significance of changes in outcome measures over time. In the three-month post-test, significant changes were found for both primary outcomes, emotional exhaustion (p = 0.001, Cohen's d effect size = -0.61) and resilience (p = 0.002, d = 0.53), as well as for anxiety (p < 0.001, d = -0.71), insomnia (p = 0.002, d = -0.53), depersonalization (p = 0.017, d = -0.40), depression (p = 0.006, d = -0.47), and mental wellbeing (p = 0.031, d = 0.36). TM practice compliance was high at 85%. Additionally, there were significant relationships between frequency of TM home practice and improvements in emotional exhaustion (p = 0.005), anxiety (p = 0.008), and insomnia (p < 0.001), and a marginally significant relationship with depression (p = 0.088). These findings suggest that TM practice is an accessible, achievable, and effective intervention to decrease burnout and increase resilience for medical students. This study paves the way for future initiatives to evaluate a broad range of benefits of TM for medical students.
Comparable studies
Other non-randomized and open-label trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress, and Immune Parameters in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients Early-stage breast and prostate cancer patients | 2003 | Pre-post intervention study | n = 59 |
| Exploring self‐compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) Community sample | 2010 | Pre-post intervention study | |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers Psychological Distress In Medical Students Second-year medical students | 2003 | Prospective nonrandomized cohort-controlled study | n = 302 |
| Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Retreat participants and matched controls | 2011 | Controlled trial with wait-list control group | n = 60 |
| The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Mindful Parenting for their Parents Children aged 8-12 with ADHD and their parents | 2011 | Within-group waitlist controlled trial | n = 22 |
Citations in the library
Cites 15
- Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Technique on Trait Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine October 9, 2013
- Effect of Transcendental Meditation on Employee Stress, Depression, and Burnout: A Randomized Controlled Study The Permanente Journal January 30, 2014
- Effectiveness of transcendental meditation on functional capacity and quality of life of African Americans with congestive heart failure: a randomized control study. 2007
- The Impact of Transcendental Meditation: Reducing Burnout and Enhancing Well-Being in Frontline Healthcare Clinicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing August 1, 2023
- Improving the mental health and well-being of healthcare providers using the transcendental meditation technique during the COVID-19 pandemic: A parallel population study. PLoS One 2023
and 10 more in the library