Potential therapeutic effects of meditation for treating affective dysregulation.

Affective dysregulation—impaired control over emotions—underlies many mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and stress-related disorders. This dysregulation often involves weakened top-down cognitive control from the prefrontal cortex over subcortical emotional processing. Long-term meditation practice can induce neuroplastic changes in brain regions supporting cognitive control and emotional regulation, suggesting meditation may serve as a cost-effective intervention for mood disorders. The review examines concepts of affective regulation and meditation, discusses behavioral and neural evidence for meditation's clinical potential, and notes promising results from incorporating mindfulness into psychotherapy. Future research could explore integrating compassion into therapeutic approaches.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Affective dysregulation is at the root of many psychopathologies, including stress induced disorders, anxiety disorders, and depression. The root of these disorders appears to be an attenuated, top-down cognitive control from the prefrontal cortices over the maladaptive subcortical emotional processing. A form of mental training, long-term meditation practice can trigger meditation-specific neuroplastic changes in the brain regions underlying cognitive control and affective regulation, suggesting that meditation can act as a kind of mental exercise to foster affective regulation and possibly a cost-effective intervention in mood disorders. Increasing research has suggested that the cultivation of awareness and acceptance along with a nonjudgmental attitude via meditation promotes adaptive affective regulation. This review examined the concepts of affective regulation and meditation and discussed behavioral and neural evidence of the potential clinical application of meditation. Lately, there has been a growing trend toward incorporating the "mindfulness" component into existing psychotherapeutic treatment. Promising results have been observed thus far. Future studies may consider exploring the possibility of integrating the element of "compassion" into current psychotherapeutic approaches.