Methodological concerns for meta-analyses of meditation: Comment on Sedlmeier et al. (2012).
David W. Orme-Johnson, Michael C. Dillbeck
Psychological Bulletin March 1, 2014 DOI: 10.1037/a0035074 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Meta-analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Post-publication review | 1 comment on PubPeer (opens in new tab) · last active September 2016 |
| Key findings | When composite indices were limited to variables with at least three studies per group, effect sizes for the Transcendental Meditation technique were significantly larger than those for mindfulness meditation or other meditations. |
Abstract
We commend Sedlmeier et al. (2012) for their significant undertaking of meta-analysis of all meditation types on all psychological variables, but additional analyses may modify some of their conclusions. Whereas they suggest from visual inspection of funnel diagrams that there may be publication bias of underreporting low-effect studies on the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, quantitative tests do not indicate the presence of bias for any type of meditation. We additionally found that there was no significant difference in effect sizes between studies originating from researchers affiliated with a TM organization and studies from other universities. We found that comparison of different types of meditation on their global index was confounded because their global index aggregated different sets of variables for the different groups. That is, using composite indices that only aggregated variables for which each group had at least 3 studies confirmed the authors' conclusion that effect sizes for different research designs were not different, but found that effect sizes for the TM technique were significantly larger than effect sizes for mindfulness meditation or other meditations. We also located 35 studies on the TM technique that appear to meet the authors' inclusion criteria that were missed by their meta-analysis, and several others on important psychosocial behavioral variables, such as job performance, substance abuse, and prison recidivism that were not reviewed. In addition, we suggest that future meta-analyses on psychological variables include cross-validating physiological studies.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being Diverse adult clinical populations | 2014 | Meta-analysis | n = 3,515 |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis Healthy subjects | 2009 | Systematic review and meta-analysis | |
| The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Nonclinical groups of adult meditators | 2012 | Meta-analysis | n = 163 |
| Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse Adults with recurrent depression in full or partial remission | 2016 | Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized controlled trials | n = 1,258 |
| Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials | 2011 | Systematic review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Effectiveness of Meditation Techniques in Treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) December 12, 2024
- Incorporación de la Orientación Contemplativa en la Práctica Educativa del Siglo XXI REICE Revista Iberoamericana sobre Calidad Eficacia y Cambio en Educación 2017
- Effects and safety of virtual reality-based mindfulness in patients with psychosis: a randomized controlled pilot study. Schizophrenia September 13, 2023
- Transcendental Meditation in the Treatment of Mental and Physical Conditions The Oxford Handbook of Meditation December 15, 2020
- Transcendental Meditation, Diabetes Mellitus and Other Disorders Journal of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute December 1, 2016
and 2 more in the library