Daily meditation of at least 30 minutes may help people suffering from depression and anxiety deal with their condition, just like taking antidepressant medication, IBTimes reports.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that is particularly effective among people who do not have 'full-blown' depression or anxiety. The claimed that 'mindful meditation', a type of Buddhist self-awareness that helps people focus precisely and nonjudgmentally on the moment at hand, also aided in alleviating pain symptoms and stress. "A lot of people use meditation, but it's not a practice considered part of mainstream medical therapy for anything," said Madhav Goyal, lead study author.
"But in our study, meditation appeared to provide as much relief from some anxiety and depression symptoms as what other studies have found from antidepressants," he added. The researchers involved in the study focused on 47 clinical trials including over 3,500 patients that involved meditation and various mental and physical health problems, including depression, anxiety, diabetes, stress, insomnia, cancer and chronic pain.
Results showed patients suffering from pain, depression and anxiety received moderate improvement after an eight-week training program in meditation. Researchers also found that the positive effects held even when taking into account placebo effect, where participants received no treatment but believe they are. "A lot of people have this idea that meditation means sitting down and doing nothing. But that's not true. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase awareness, and different meditation programs approach this in different ways. Meditation programs appear to have an effect above the and beyond the placebo," Goyal said.
