Improving Mental Health through Meditation Therapy: A Systematic Review
Kufre B. Usen, A. P. Etuk, James R. Sunday, G. Abikoye
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science 2025 DOI: 10.47772/ijriss.2025.917psy0015 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review Randomized Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 3,876 |
| Population | Pregnant women |
| Intervention | meditation-based interventions |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Meditation-based interventions have moderate to large effects on depression, anxiety, and stress, with similar significant effects on PTSD symptoms. |
Abstract
This paper is a systematic review of studies which aimed at improving mental health outcomes through meditation-based therapy. Specifically, this review sought to synthesize current evidences on the effect of meditation-based interventions on various mental states capable of confronting pregnant women, such as depression, anxiety, Stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental health conditions. Also to assess the quality of existing studies of meditation therapy on mental health and provide recommendations for clinical practice and further research based on synthesized evidence. It adopted a comprehensive literature search using electronic database, such as pubmed, psychInfo, Google scholar. Search strategy combined terms related to meditation (eg Meditation, mindfulness, trancedental meditation) with terms associated with mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, stress, PTSD and other mental health conditions. Inclusion criteria were met by studies with Randomized controlled trials (RCTS) or meta-analysis published published between 2014 and 2024, assessing the effect of meditation on mental health outcomes. Exclusion criteria met by non-randomized studies, case reports, qualitative studies and studies focusing solely on physiological outcomes. The 42 included studies comprised a total of 3,876 participants. Sample size ranged from 24 to 286 participants (m=92.3, SD=62.7). Findings from systematic review synthesized from 42 randomized controlled trials indicated that meditation-based interventions have moderate to large effects on depression, anxiety and stress, with similar but significant effects on PTSD symptoms, depression and anxiety. It was concluded that the systematic review provides robust evidence supporting the effectiveness of meditation therapy in improving various mental health outcomes.
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 |