Meditation and psychosis. A trigger or a cure?

This review examines the use of meditation techniques in psychiatry and psychotherapy, focusing on mindfulness meditation. It outlines meditation's history and characteristics, noting potential side effects. The authors analyze meditation's links to psychosis, describing conditions where it may trigger decompensation and research on modified techniques for psychotic patients. Using psychodynamic and cognitive theories, they interpret findings that meditation may trigger psychosis in certain circumstances, while mindfulness-based interventions can help alleviate symptoms during psychotic episodes.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The article is a review and an analysis of studies concerning usage of meditation techniques in psychiatry and psychotherapy. A brief history and characteristic of meditation is presented, with emphasis on mindfulness meditation, which is a variation most widely used for health reasons. On the other hand, potential „side effects” of meditational practices are also brought into attention. The authors focus mostly on meditation's links to psychosis, describing both conditions in which meditation may cause decompensation, as well as presenting research on the effects o modified meditation techniques implementation among psychotic patients. In order to better understand the phenomena described the authors interpret meditation's effects using both psychodynamic and cognitive theories. Presented studies suggest that in certain circumstances meditation may trigger psychosis, but they also show that interventions based on mindfulness may play an important clinical role in the alleviation of symptoms during psychotic episodes.