Research Studies on Relaxation Techniques (including meditation) and Anxiety/Depression
The following studies have analyzed the relationship between meditation and anxiety:
Twenty-two study participants were screened with a structured clinical interview and found to meet the DSM-III-R criteria for generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. The subjects participated in an eight-week meditation-based stress reduction and relaxation program with a three-month follow-up period. The study found significant reductions in anxiety and depression scores and a reduction in panic symptoms after treatment for twenty of the subjects—changes that were maintained at follow-up.
A meta-analysis was conducted to determine the effects of meditation and hypnosis techniques on psychometric measures of anxiety. The chief measure employed in the evaluated research was the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1970; 1983). The analysis included twenty-one hypnosis studies and fifty-four meditation studies. Both techniques were effective in reducing measures of state anxiety. However, for measures of trait anxiety, meditation was more effective.
This study evaluated the influence of meditation and physical exercise on cognitive and somatic anxiety, using 340 meditators, competitive athletes, recreational exercisers, and sedentary controls. Results did not confirm that meditation is associated with reduced cognitive anxiety or that exercise is linked with lower somatic anxiety.
The authors conducted a meta-analysis of studies on the effects of relaxation techniques on trait anxiety. Effect sizes for the different treatments (e.g. progressive relaxation, biofeedback, meditation) were calculated. Most treatments produced similar effect sizes, although Transcendental Meditation produced a significantly larger effect size than other forms of meditation and relaxation. A comparison of the content of the treatments and their differential effects suggests that this may be due to the lesser amount of effort involved in TM. Meditation that involved concentration had a significantly smaller effect than progressive relaxation.
Fifty-two undergraduates who had volunteered to receive meditation training were placed into either high or low time-urgency groups based on their scores on Factor S of the Jenkins Activity Survey. Subjects then either received training in Clinically Standardized Meditation followed by three-and-one-half weeks of practice or waited for training during that period. Analyses of scores on a time-estimation task and of self-reported hostility during an enforced waiting task indicated that meditation significantly altered subjects' perceptions of the passage of time and reduced impatience and hostility resulting from enforced waiting.
Fifty-two respondents to an ad for anxiety reduction therapy were randomly assigned to TM, behavior therapy, self-relaxation, or a waiting-list control group. They were evaluated before and after treatment on multiple self-report and psychophysiological measures. The results of multivariate analyses of variance indicated there were no significant differerential treatment effects. The results of stepwise multiple regression analyses performed separately for each experimental condition indicated that client characteristics accounted for significant portions of the variance in one or more of the dependent variables for each treatment. Clients who reported perceiving more internal locus of control benefited more from TM than clients who reported greater external locus of control.
This study was designed to document the occurrence of relaxation-induced anxiety. Fourteen subjects suffering from general tension were given one session of training in each of two relaxation methods, progressive relaxation and mantra meditation. Four subjects, plus one other who terminated prematurely, displayed clinical evidence of anxiety reaction during a preliminary practice period, while 30.8% of the total group under progressive relaxation and 53.8% under focused relaxation reported increased tension due to the relaxation session. progressive relaxation produced greater reductions in subjective and physiological outcome measures and less evidence of relaxation-induced anxiety.
Thirty-five undergraduate volunteers were randomly assigned to either a meditation group or a sleep/rest control group balanced for expectancy to compare the function of these treatments in the alleviation of test anxiety. Self-report, performance, and physiological indices were assessed, as moderated by gender, Scholastic Aptitude Test score, frequency of practice, repression, and expectancy of relief. The treatments were equally effective in reducing test anxiety.
Physiological and self-report data were collected on sixty-one anxious subjects who were recruited from newspaper ads and randomly assigned to a Progressive Relaxation, mantra meditation, or control group. Both progressive relaxation and meditation generated positive expectancies and produced decreases in a variety of self-reported symptoms and on EMG, but no skin conductance or frontal EEG effects were observed. progressive relaxation produced bigger decreases in forearm EMG responsiveness to stressful stimulation and a generally more powerful therapeutic effect than meditation. Meditation produced greater cardiac-orienting responses to stressful stimuli, greater absorption in the task, and better motivation to practice than Progressive Relaxation, but it also produced more reports of increased transient anxiety.
Thirty-six female volunteers ranging in age from sixty-three to seventy-nine years participated in a twenty-week study designed to evaluate the effects of meditation/relaxation on symptoms of anxiety and depression. Subjects, 83% of whom were widows, were selected because of complaints of anxiety, nervousness, tension, fatigue, insomnia, sadness, and somatic complaints. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) relaxation/meditation, (2) relaxation/meditation with a ten-week follow-up consisting of practice on a daily basis using relaxation/meditation tapes, and (3) a pseudorelaxation control group (N=12 per group). The treatment groups received one week of baseline evaluation, ten weeks of weekly thirty-minute training sessions, and a ten-week follow-up, with taped relaxation sessions for group 2. The control group followed an identical schedule for ten weeks but did not participate in the follow-up. The Spielberger Self-Evaluation Questionnaire and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale were administered before treatment, at the end of the ten weeks of training, and again at the end of the follow-up period (for the treatment groups). In comparison to the control group, the treatment groups manifested a significant pre- to posttreatment decrement for both state and trait anxiety. When the treatment groups were compared as to the efficacy of the follow-up practice sessions, it was found that the practice group continued to show a decrement in state anxiety while the nonpractice group exhibited a return toward baseline levels. However, trait anxiety continued to decrease for both groups. In terms of depression, there was a tendency toward a decrease in mean symptom scores that failed to reach significance. Yet, when questions that correlated highly with anxiety and somatic symptoms were removed and analyzed separately, a significant pre- to posttreatment decrement was noted.
Thirty-four subjects were recruited from advertisements in local newspapers and received training in meditation or progressive relaxation, or were assigned to a control group. Subjects were tested using the SCL-90, IPAT Anxiety Inventory, and the Lehrer-Woolfolk Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire. Their behavior was also rated weekly by a spouse or roommate. The Progressive Relaxation and meditation treatments resulted in a significant reduction of stress symptomatology over time.
Sixty-one undergraduate volunteers were randomly assigned to clinically standardized meditation, quiet sitting, or waiting-list groups. Nineteen others were assigned either to a group practicing "open focus," a technique that begins with awareness exercises focusing on bodily spaces and continues to an expanded awareness of space permeating everything, or to a waiting list. All subjects were tested before training and again eight weeks later. All groups except the waiting list decreased significantly on Spielberger's Trait Anxiety.
The Eysenck Personality Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and two questionnaires on health and drug usage were administered to thirty-nine subjects before they learned TM or progressive relaxation. All subjects were tested immediately after they had learned either technique and then retested five, ten, and fifteen weeks later. There were no significant differences between groups for any of the psychological variables at pretest. However, at posttest the TM group displayed more significant and comprehensive results (decreases in Neuroticism/Stability, Extraversion/Introversion, and drug use) than did the progressive relaxation group. Both groups demonstrated significant decreases in State and Trait Anxiety. The more pronounced results for meditators were explained primarily in terms of the greater amount of time that they spent on their technique, plus the differences between the two techniques themselves.
The authors studied 154 New York Telephone employees, self-selected for stress, who learned one of three techniques—clinically standardized meditation, respiratory one method meditation, or progressive relaxation—or who served as waiting-list controls. At 5.5 months, the treatment groups showed clinical improvement in self-reported symptoms of stress using the SCL-90-R Self-Report Inventory, but only the meditation groups showed significantly more symptom reduction than the controls. The authors concluded that meditation training has considerable value for stress-management programs in organizational settings.
Thirty-six volunteer subjects were assigned to a progressive relaxation group, a clinically standardized meditation group, or a waiting-list control group asked to relax daily without specific instructions. Subjects were given the state and trait scales of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the IPAT Anxiety Inventory two times, separated by five weeks, during which the two treatment groups received four weekly sessions of group training. At the end of the five-week period all subjects were tested in a psychophysiology laboratory where they were exposed to five very loud tones. Using the techniques they had learned while anticipating the loud tones, the meditation group exhibited higher heart rates and higher integrated frontalis EMG activity. However, they also showed greater cardiac decelerations following each tone, more frontal alpha, and fewer symptoms of cognitive anxiety than the other two groups, according to the two inventories.
Thirty-one chronically anxious subjects were studied to compare their responses to muscle biofeedback, TM, and relaxation therapy. The study consisted of a six-week baseline period, six weeks of treatment, a six-week posttreatment observation period, and later follow-up. Each subject was ranked according to the degree of improvement on five anxiety variables: Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale Score, Mean Current Mood Checklist score, situational anxiety, symptomatic distress, and sleep disturbance. The results indicate that neither EMG feedback nor TM is any more effective in alleviating the symptoms of chronically anxious patients than relaxation therapy. Additionally, the three treatments were similar with respect to both the time course for obtaining therapeutic results and the subjects' ability to maintain these results once they were obtained.
This study examined the effect of self-desensitization and meditation in the reduction of public speaking anxiety. Thirty-eight speech-anxious students were assigned to a control group or one of the following self-administered treatment conditions: systematic desensitization, desensitization with meditation replacing progressive relaxation, or meditation only. The results indicated that the three treatments were equally effective in reducing anxiety, and all of them produced a greater reduction in self-reported (but not behavioral) anxiety than that found in untreated subjects. Reliable changes in physiological manifestations of anxiety were found only in those subjects who rated the treatment rationale as highly credible. High credibility ratings were also associated with significanty greater reductions in self-reported anxiety.
This study explored the efficacy of two nonpharmacological techniques for therapy of anxiety: a simple, meditational relaxation technique and a self-hypnosis technique. Thirty-two patients were divided into two groups and instructed to practice the assigned technique daily for eight weeks. Change in anxiety was determined by psychiatric assessment, physiological testing, and self-assessment. There was essentially no difference between the two techniques in therapeutic efficacy according to these evaluations. Psychiatric assessment revealed overall improvement in 34% of the patients, while self-rating assessment indicated improvement in 63% of them.
Using the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (which measures free-floating anxiety and obsessions) and the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, this study found TM and progressive relaxation to be equally effective in reducing anxiety among a group of anxious subjects. The authors suggested that the only way to evaluate claims made by TM practitioners was to compare them with others who are using alternative treatments (or coping mechanisms) with measurement criteria strictly defined.
Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory were completed by three groups of undergraduates. A group of twenty-five was taught TM, a group of forty was taught progressive relaxation, and a group of twenty-seven acted as controls. Seven weeks later, both inventories were readministered to all groups. Only the subjects who regularly practiced TM showed a significant reduction in trait-anxiety scores compared with controls.
The Trait Anxiety Scale of Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was administered to an experimental group of thirty-seven subjects practicing the TM technique and to a control group of fifteen subjects not practicing TM. The meditators were found to be significantly less anxious than the nonmeditators.
Four weeks after learning the TM technique, eleven subjects showed a significant decrease in mean anxiety scores on Campbell and Stanley's Recurrent Institutional Cycle Design and the IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire. Similar results were obtained in a second experiment.
Seventeen students who practiced TM regularly and thirteen who learned TM but did not practice it regularly were given the IPAT Anxiety Scale and the Psychoticism, Neuroticism, Extroversion, and Lie scales of the PENL before and three to four months after starting the TM program. Analyses of covariance showed that neuroticism declined significantly more among the regular meditators. There was a similar trend of greater decreases for the regular meditators in anxiety and psychoticism, although these differences in changes over the three- to four-month period only approached significance. No changes were observed in the other scales.
This study experimentally tested the claimed stress-reducing effects of TM. Two stress films were shown to a group of sixty meditators and nonmeditators. Stress response was observed through the use of cognitive and affective measures, employing content analysis techniques and self-ratings. On several self-rating scales, a group of subjects who had signed up to be initiated into TM rated themselves significantly more emotionally distressed than either a control group or other meditators. There was a trend for meditators who meditated during the experiment to show less stress response to the films than meditators who were told not to meditate. However, this difference was significant on only one measure, a subjective stress scale.
This study combined the self-control techniques of Zen meditation and behavioral self-management, and applied them to a case of generalized anxiety. The subject was a female undergraduate student who complained of "free-floating anxiety" and who described her feelings of loss of self-control and anxiety as an "overpowering feeling of being bounced around by some sort of all-powerful forces." Intervention consisted of training in behavioral self-observation and functional analysis, a weekend of Zen experience, and three weeks of formal and informal meditation. Results indicated a significant decrease in daily feelings of anxiety and stress during the intervention phase.
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory A-State Scale was administered to eight experimental subjects and nine control subjects two days before the experimental subjects began the practice of TM. Six weeks later the subjects were asked to carry out a demanding task, after which the control group was instructed to sit with eyes closed and the experimental group was instructed to meditate for fifteen minutes. The anxiety scale was then readministered. Mean anxiety scores for the two groups were not significantly different on the first administration of the test. The reduction in anxiety between the two tests was significantly greater for the meditators than for the nonmeditators. Since both groups were exposed to knowledge about the TM program but only the experimental group was instructed in the technique, it appeared that the reduced anxiety in the meditators was due to the experience of TM rather than knowledge about it.
One hundred fifty-nine Association of Research and Enlightenment members were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group, with the former learning a new meditation technique (Edgar Cayce's approach) and the latter continuing their customary daily pattern. Analysis of variance was used to compare group means of the scale scores yielded by the IPAT Anxiety Scale and the Mooney Problem Check List. Unlike the control group, the treatment group reported highly significant reductions on the IPAT Anxiety Scale scores after twenty-eight days of meditation with the new approach. No significant differences were found on the checklist variables for either the treatment or control group.
Attentional absorption and trait anxiety in fifty-eight subjects divided into four groups: controls who were interested in but did not practice meditation, beginners who had meditated for one month or less, short-term meditators who had practiced regularly for one to twenty-four months, and meditators who had practiced for more than two years. Subjects were administered the Shor Personal Experiences Questionnaire, the Tellegen Absorption Scale, and the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results indicated reliable increases in measures of attentional absorption, in conjunction with a reliable decrement in trait anxiety across groups as a function of length of time meditating.
This study compared meditation and relaxation for their ability to reduce stress reactions in a laboratory threat situation. Thirty experienced meditators and thirty controls either meditated or relaxed, with eyes closed or with eyes open, then watched a stressor film. Stress response was assessed by phasic skin conductance, heart rate, self-report, and personality scales. Meditators habituated heart rate and phasic skin-conductance responses more quickly to the stressor impacts and experienced less subjective anxiety (as indicated by the Activity Preference Questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Eysenck Personality Inventory).
In this study, two experiments were conducted to isolate the trait-anxiety-reducing effects of TM from expectation of relief, and the concomitant ritual of sitting twice daily. Experiment 1 was a double-blind study in which forty-nine anxious college student volunteers were assigned to TM and fifty-one were assigned to a control treatment, "periodic somatic inactivity" (PSI). PSI matched form, complexity, and expectation-fostering aspects of TM, but incorporated a daily exercise that involved sitting twice daily rather than sitting and meditating. In experiment 2, two parallel treatments were compared, both called "cortically mediated stabilization" (CMS). Twenty-seven volunteers were taught CMS 1, a treatment that incorporated a TM-like meditation exercise, and twenty-seven were taught CMS 2, an exercise designed to be the near antithesis of meditation (deliberate cognitive activity). The dependent variables were self-reported trait anxiety measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory A-Trait Scale and anxiety symptoms of striated muscle tension and autonomic arousal as measured by the Epstein-Fenz Manifest Anxiety Scale. Results show six months of TM and PSI to be equally effective and eleven weeks of CMS 1 and CMS 2 to be equally effective. Differences between groups did not approach significance. The results strongly support the conclusion that the crucial therapeutic component of TM is not the TM exercise.
In this study, nine patients diagnosed as anxiety neurotics were monitored for anxiety symptoms with an anxiety symptom questionnaire before practicing yoga meditation at each training session. After approximately four months of practice, five patients improved significantly, while the other four failed to show any appreciable decline in anxiety symptoms. These four then meditated while engaged in imaginal flooding, where they imagined the worst thing that could happen to them. During meditation and imaginal flooding a decrement in anxiety occurred. Analysis of patient characteristics suggested that yoga meditation was beneficial for patients with a short history of illness and that flooding was effective for those with a long history.
Fifteen experienced TM meditators and twenty-one novice meditators were administered Bendig's Anxiety Scale, Rotter's Locus of Control scale, and Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory of self-actualization. As predicted, experienced meditators were significantly less anxious and more internally controlled than beginning meditators. Likewise, experienced meditators were significantly higher, i.e., more self-actualized, on seven of Shostrom's twelve subscales.
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory A-State Scale was administered to eight experimental subjects and nine control subjects two days before the experimental subjects began learning the TM technique. Six weeks later the subjects were asked to carry out a demanding task; immediately afterward the control group was instructed to sit with eyes closed and the experimental group to meditate for fifteen minutes. The anxiety scale was then readministered. Mean anxiety scores for the two groups were not significantly different on the first administration of this test. At the second administration of the test, however, the reduction in anxiety was significantly greater for the meditators.
In this study, ninety-five outpatients, diagnosed as psychoneurotic, acted as subjects. All of them had failed to show improvement as a result of previous treatments. Half were taught yoga and meditation, and they practiced these techniques for one hour a day for four to six weeks. The other half, the controls, were given a pseudotreatment consisting of exercises resembling yoga asanas (postures) and pranayamas (breathing exercises). Control subjects were asked to write down all the thoughts that came into their minds during treatment, and they followed the same daily schedule as the experimental group. Both groups were given the same support, reassurance, and placebo tablets, and were assessed clinically before, during, and after treatment. Following treatment, the experimental group exhibited a significant mean decrease in anxiety, measured on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. The control group exhibited no significant change on this scale. Overall, 74% of the experimental group were judged to be clinically improved after treatment as against only 43% of the control group (improvement in the control group being attributed to a combination of involvement in research and therapist's time). The authors concluded that meditation and yoga are significantly more effective than a pseudotherapy in the treatment of psychoneurosis.
For other studies examining the relationship between meditation and anxiety, see: Alexander et al. (1993), Weinstein and Smith (1992), Snaith et al. (1992), Fulton 1990), Coleman (1990), Traver (1990), DeBerry et al. (1989), Soskis et al. (1989), Collings (1989), Agran (1989), Kalayil (1989), Jangid et al. (1988a), Sawada and Steptoe (1988), Delmonte and Kenny (1987), Delmonte (1986a), Shaw (1986), Benson (1986), Callahan (1986), DeLone (1986), van Dalfsen (1986), Benson (1985a), Blevins (1985), Kutz et al. (1985a, 1985b), Delmonte and Kenny (1985), Delmonte (1985a, 1985d), Hungerman (1985), Gilmore (1985), Norton et al. (1985), Scardapane (1985), Steinmiller (1985), Maras et al. (1984), Benson (1984b), Clark (1984), Cummings (1984, Gitiban (1983), Hirss (1983), Goldberg (1982), Kindlon (1982), Schuster (1982), Borelli (1982), DeBlassie (1981), Jones (1981), Denny (1981), Zeff (1981), Curtis (1980), Gordon (1980), Bridgewater (1979), Joseph (1979), Diner (1978), Bahrke (1978), Comer (1978), Goldman (1978), Hendricksen (1978), Lewis (1978a), Pelletier (1976b, 1978), Scuderi (1978), Wampler (1978), Wood (1978), Berkowitz (1977), Traynham (1977), Weiner (1977), Fabick (1976), Schecter (1975), and J. Shapiro (1975).
Source: The Institute of Noetic Sciences Taylor, E. The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation
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