Neda F Gould

Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

IMPORTANCE Many people meditate to reduce psychological stress and stress-related health problems. To counsel people appropriately, clinicians need to know what the evidence says about the health benefits of meditation. OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of meditation programs in improving stress-related outcomes (anxiety, depression, stress/distress, positive mood, mental health-related quality of life, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, pain, and weight) in diverse adult clinical populations. EVIDENCE REVIEW We identified randomized clinical trials with active controls for placebo effects through November 2012 from MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, PsycArticles, Scopus, CINAHL, AMED, the Cochrane Library, and hand searches. Two independent reviewers screened citations and extracted data. We graded the strength of evidence using 4 domains (risk of bias, precision, directness, and consistency) and determined the magnitude and direction of effect by calculating the relative difference between groups in change from baseline. When possible, we conducted meta-analyses using standardized mean differences to obtain aggregate estimates of effect size with 95% confidence intervals. FINDINGS After reviewing 18 753 citations, we included 47 trials with 3515 participants. Mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety (effect size, 0.38 [95% CI, 0.12-0.64] at 8 weeks and 0.22 [0.02-0.43] at 3-6 months), depression (0.30 [0.00-0.59] at 8 weeks and 0.23 [0.05-0.42] at 3-6 months), and pain (0.33 [0.03- 0.62]) and low evidence of improved stress/distress and mental health-related quality of life. We found low evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight. We found no evidence that meditation programs were better than any active treatment (ie, drugs, exercise, and other behavioral therapies). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Clinicians should be aware that meditation programs can result in small to moderate reductions of multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress. Thus, clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that a meditation program could have in addressing psychological stress. Stronger study designs are needed to determine the effects of meditation programs in improving the positive dimensions of mental health and stress-related behavior.

Peritraumatic Heart Rate and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Patients With Severe Burns

OBJECTIVE Previous studies have suggested a link between heart rate (HR) following trauma and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study expands on previous work by evaluating HR in burn patients followed longitudinally for symptoms of acute stress disorder (ASD) and PTSD. METHOD Data were collected from consecutive patients admitted to the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, Baltimore, Maryland, between 1997 and 2002. Patients completed the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire (n = 157) to assess symptoms of ASD. The Davidson Trauma Scale was completed at 1 (n = 145), 6 (n = 106), 12 (n = 94), and 24 (n = 66) months postdischarge to assess symptoms of PTSD. Heart rate in the ambulance, emergency room, and burn unit were obtained by retrospective medical chart review. RESULTS Pearson correlations revealed a significant relationship between HR in the ambulance (r = 0.32, P = .016) and burn unit (r = 0.30, P = .001) and ASD scores at baseline. Heart rate in the ambulance was related to PTSD avoidance cluster scores at 1, 6, 12, and 24 months. In women, HR in the ambulance was correlated with PTSD scores at 6 (r = 0.65, P = .005) and 12 (r = 0.78, P = .005) months. When covariates (gender, β-blockers, Brief Symptom Inventory Global Severity Index score) were included in multivariate linear regression analyses, ambulance HR was associated with ASD and PTSD scores at baseline and 1 month, and the interaction of ambulance HR and gender was associated with PTSD scores at 6 and 12 months. Multivariate logistic regression results were similar at baseline and 12 months, which included an HR association yet no interaction at 6 months and a marginal interaction at 1 month. CONCLUSIONS While peritraumatic HR is most robustly associated with PTSD symptom severity, HR on admission to burn unit also predicts the development of ASD. Gender and avoidance symptoms appear particularly salient in this relationship, and these factors may aid in the identification of subgroups for which HR serves as a biomarker for PTSD. Future work may identify endophenotypic measures of increased risk for PTSD, targeting subgroups for early intervention.