Effect of meditation on clinical symptoms and gray matter volume in chronic schizophrenia: a randomized controlled trial.

Meditation therapy can slow the loss of gray matter volume in the brains of people with chronic schizophrenia. In an eight-month trial with 58 male inpatients, those who practiced meditation showed less brain tissue shrinkage than those receiving conventional treatment alone. Greater preservation of gray matter in the right thalamus was linked to larger reductions in positive, negative, and total symptom scores on the PANSS scale. Similar links were found for the right insula and supplementary motor area. The results suggest meditation may help alleviate clinical symptoms in schizophrenia by protecting brain structure.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of meditation therapy in patients with schizophrenia remain poorly understood, therefore, we aim to investigate the relationship between clinical symptoms and the structural changes in brain gray matter in a meditation intervention trial. Han inpatients with schizophrenia admitted to the Shanghai First Civil Affairs Mental Health Centre in 2018 were recruited and randomly assigned to the meditation (Med) or the conventional (CON) treatment group in an eight-months trial. MRI data was collected at the outset, three months, and eight months of treatment. Fifty-eight male subjects completed all evaluations and MRI scans, including 30 in Med and 28 in CON. The findings indicate that meditation can significantly inhibit the extensive regional atrophy of gray matter volume (GMV). A positive correlation was observed between the GMV change rate in the right thalamus and the reduction rate of PANSS positive score (r = 0.3850, p = 0.0028), negative score (r = 0.3789, p = 0.0034) and total score (r = 0.3705, p = 0.0042); The GMV change rate in right insula was positively correlated with PANSS positive score (r = 0.2976, p = 0.0233), negative score (r = 0.3987, p = 0.0019), general score (r = 0.3216, p = 0.0138) and total score (r = 0.3765, p = 0.0035). Additionally, the GMV change rate in the right supplementary motor area was positively correlated with negative scores (r = 0.3633, p = 0.0051). while the right paracentral lobule positively correlated with PANSS general score (r = 0.2791, p = 0.0338). These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of meditation in chronic schizophrenia and suggest it as a promising method for the alleviation of clinical symptoms in schizophrenia.