Ventilatory response to CO2. II. Studies in neurotic psychiatric patients and practitioners of transcendental meditation.
B S Singh
Psychosomatic Medicine 1984 DOI: 10.1097/00006842-198407000-00004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Normal subjects, neurotically disturbed psychiatric patients, individuals practicing transcendental meditation, anxious, depressive, and hyperventilating subject groups, and two male subjects with endogenous depression |
| Interventions | Transcendental meditation Electroconvulsive therapy |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The hypothesis that transcendental meditation practitioners would have a lower ventilatory response to CO2 (S) than normal subjects was confirmed, but the hypothesis that neurotically disturbed patients would have higher S was not: patients had the lowest mean S of the three groups, a finding the authors say is of doubtful validity due to sample characteristics. Very experienced TM practitioners (sidhas) significantly lowered S while meditating compared with the nonmeditating alert state. |
Abstract
The prominence of respiratory symptoms in patients with neurotic psychiatric disorders is noted and the literature on the control of respiration is reviewed to attempt to explain this finding. A previous study demonstrated a positive correlation between the ventilatory response to CO2 (S) and neurotic personality traits in a group of normal subjects. This study attempted to follow up this finding and hypothesized that a group of neurotically disturbed patients would have a higher S value and a group of individuals who practiced a calming technique such as transcendental meditation (TM) would have a lower S value than normal subjects. The second hypothesis was confirmed, but not the first, in that the neurotically disturbed patients had the lowest mean values for S of the three groups, rather than the highest. Particular characteristics of the sample of psychiatric patients cast doubt, however, on the validity of this finding. Three additional findings of this study were that anxious, depressive, and hyperventilating subject groups were no different from one another in terms of S values; that very experienced TM practitioners (sidhas) could significantly lower their ventilatory response to CO2 in the meditating state as compared to the nonmeditating alert state; and that the S value did not increase in two male subjects with endogenous depression after successful treatment with electroconvulsive therapy.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Undergraduate students | 2006 | Observational cohort | |
| Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders Patients with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia | 1992 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness Participants with extensive Insight meditation experience and matched controls | 2005 | Observational cohort | n = 20 |
| Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive controls | 2011 | Observational cohort | |
| Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Long-term Buddhist practitioners and controls | 2004 | Observational cohort |