Psychological effects of meditation at a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar.
Yuichi Kasai, Toshihiko Sakakibara, Thein Aung Kyaw, Zaw Wai Soe, Zaw Min Han, Maung Mg Htwe
Journal of Mental Health February 1, 2017 DOI: 10.3109/09638237.2015.1124405 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 178 |
| Population | Myanmar people practicing Vipassana contemplation training and Myanmar nurses without meditation experience |
| Intervention | Vipassana contemplation training |
| Topics | Meditation Buddhism |
| Keywords | Mental health Personality Psychological tests |
| Key findings | Meditation mitigates depressive mood, anger, hostility, and fatigue, increases vigor, and enhances psychological flexibility only after more than a year of practice. |
Abstract
Meditation is widely used as a therapeutic measure because it can effectively reduce stress, pain, and improve the mental health, but there are many unclear points about the psychological effects of meditation. The purpose of this study is to verify the psychological effects of meditation. The short version of Profile of Mood States (POMS-SF) and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) were conducted to compare 97 Myanmar people practicing Vipassana contemplation training with 81 Myanmar nurses who did not have any experience with meditation. The results of our study revealed that meditation mitigated depressive mood, anger, hostility, and fatigue and increased vigor. The enhancement of psychological flexibility occurred only after practicing meditation for more than a year. It can be considered that meditation mitigates anger, hostility and fatigue and increases vigor at a relatively early stage after starting meditation practice, and if meditation practice is continued for more than a year, enhancement of psychological flexibility can also be expected.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| AN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY ON THE ZEN MEDITATION (ZAZEN) Zen priests and disciples of Zen sects of Buddhism | 1966 | Observational study | n = 48 |
| “Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation Regular Zen practitioners and matched control subjects | 2008 | Observational cohort | |
| Individual Trait Anxiety Levels Characterizing the Properties of Zen Meditation Healthy adults who had not previously practiced any form of meditation | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Zen meditation, Length of Telomeres, and the Role of Experiential Avoidance and Compassion 20 Zen meditation experts and 20 healthy matched non-meditators | 2016 | Observational cohort | n = 40 |
| EEG dynamics of experienced Zen meditation practitioners probed by complexity index and spectral measure Experienced Zen meditation practitioners and matched controls | 2009 | Observational cohort | n = 46 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 11
- The Two Arrows of Pain: Mechanisms of Pain Related to Meditation and Mental States of Aversion and Identification Mindfulness January 28, 2022
- Different Patterns of Sleep-Dependent Procedural Memory Consolidation in Vipassana Meditation Practitioners and Non-meditating Controls. Frontiers in Psychology January 23, 2020
- EEG oscillations reveal neuroplastic changes in pain processing associated with long-term meditation. Scientific Reports March 27, 2025
- Differential Effects of Meditation States on Neural Pain Processing in Novice and Long-Term Meditators Mindfulness April 1, 2026
- Defining Bhāvanā through the PAL framework: grounded theory insights from long-term IAM®-35 practitioners Humanities and Social Sciences Communications September 25, 2025
and 6 more in the library
Cites 5
- Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being JAMA Internal Medicine January 6, 2014
- 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
- A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Meditation for Work Stress, Anxiety and Depressed Mood in Full‐Time Workers Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2011
- Mindfulness meditation modulates reward prediction errors in a passive conditioning task. Frontiers in Psychology 2015
- Short-term meditation modulates brain activity of insight evoked with solution cue. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2015