Meditation in Populations with Chronic Physical Health Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
August 26, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.17605/osf.io/5eysb (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review protocol Randomized Longitudinal Cross-sectional Qualitative |
|---|---|
| Population | Adults aged 18 to 75 with chronic physical health conditions |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The protocol predicts that meditation will show positive effects on chronic condition symptoms and associated outcomes, but expects advanced meditation to be scarcely studied in these populations, defining a research gap. |
Abstract
This systematic review synthesizes evidence on the effects of meditation on physical and mental health in adults (ages 18 to 75) living with chronic physical health conditions. Meditation research in medical contexts has concentrated almost entirely on brief structured mindfulness programs such as MBSR and MBCT. Preliminary evidence from this literature indicates that mindfulness practice can reduce inflammatory biomarkers, improve immune function, and alleviate anxiety and depressive symptoms in people with chronic disease. Two gaps motivate this review. First, no recent synthesis has examined these effects across chronic physical illness as a broad category rather than within single conditions. Second, the literature has largely overlooked advanced meditation, meaning the greater depth, variety, and mastery of contemplative states that emerge with sustained expertise, despite traditional and contemporary reports suggesting that advanced practice may reduce illness-related suffering and possibly influence physical symptoms. We will search PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science for peer-reviewed empirical studies in English, combining meditation terms with terms for chronic physical health conditions. The initial search was conducted on July 27, 2026. Eligible studies must include a meditation practice, training, or intervention as the primary component and a population with a chronic physical health condition, defined as persistent or progressive symptoms or disease burden lasting at least three months. Randomized controlled trials, observational, cross-sectional, longitudinal, qualitative and phenomenological, mixed-methods, and feasibility studies are all eligible. We exclude populations defined by recovery from a discrete acute event, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, or major surgery, along with cancer, chronic pain, and chronic psychiatric populations. We also exclude interventions centered on movement (postural yoga, tai chi, qigong) or on volitional alteration of breathing. Outcomes of interest span symptom and disease progression measures, biological markers, phenomenological reports, and psychological measures of quality of life, well-being, and psychiatric symptoms. Two reviewers will screen and extract data independently, with a third reviewer resolving disagreements. We anticipate a narrative synthesis supplemented by meta-analysis where the data permit, with subgroup analyses by condition type, meditation style and depth, and demographic and baseline practice characteristics. We predict that meditation will show positive effects on chronic condition symptoms and associated biological, phenomenological, and psychological outcomes. We further expect that advanced meditation will prove to be scarcely studied in these populations, in which case a central contribution of this review will be to define that gap and specify what future research on advanced meditation in chronic illness should address.
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 |