Facts, statistics and scientific research on meditation

Here is a selection of facts, statistics and scientific research on meditation and the application of meditation and mindfulness techniques in the modern world.

1) Meditation has been applied in the treatment of pain, stress, depression, addiction, anger and attention deficit disorders, and—often in tandem with conventional medical treatments—a range of other conditions.
eg. Panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behaviour, insomnia, psoriasis, certain types of cancer, tinnitus and fibromyalgia.1

2) It has been discovered that the brain has the ability to change its structure and function—strengthening and expanding circuits that are frequently used, and weakening and shrinking those that are rarely engaged. This flexibility in the brain is what is called ‘neuroplasticity’, and explains why meditation can have a lasting effect on the way we process thoughts and emotions.2

3) Neuroscientists have discovered that meditation can stimulate significant increases in activity in several parts of the left prefrontal cortex—an area of the brain associated with positive emotions, such as happiness, enthusiasm, joy and self-control.

Meditators also showed a decreased level of activity in the parts of the brain related to negative emotions, such as depression, self-centredness and a lack of happiness or satisfaction.3

Meditation also produces a calming effect in the amygdala, the part of the brain that acts as a trigger for fear and anger.

4) Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to bring about a considerable strengthening of the immune system and of one’s capacity for concentration, as well as a reduction in arterial tension in people suffering from hypertension.

5) Studies have shown that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy can halve the rate of relapse in people who have suffered two or more episodes of serious depression.4

6) It was found that patients receiving ultraviolet light treatment for the skin disease psoriasis healed about four times faster when they practised mindfulness meditation while having their treatment.5

7) The Sainte Anne hospital in Paris was the first medical establishment in France to introduce mindfulness, in 2004. The programme was introduced by the psychiatrist and psychotherapist Christophe Andre.

8) More than 10 million people in the USA say that they regularly practise some form of meditation—twice as many as 10 years ago. In 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA financed more than 50 studies on mindfulness, compared to just three in 2000.6

9) Meditation and mindfulness techniques are used by a wide range of people, from business leaders, medical professionals, schoolchildren and prison inmates, to lawyers, military personnel, expectant mothers, Olympic athletes and sports stars.

10) The US military has been offering mindfulness training to personnel returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to help them cope with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the psychological after-effects of combat.7

1. Details of some of the applications of mindfulness, as well as research studies, can be found on the website of the Centre For Mindfulness Research And Practice at Bangor University.
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/research.php.en?menu=6&catid=4506&subid=0

2. Some books on neuroplasticity:
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, J. M. Schwartz, S. Begley, Harper Perennial, 2003.
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph From the Frontiers of Brain Science. N. Doidge, Penguin, 2007.
Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, S Begley, Ballantine Books, 2007.

3. A Lutz, LL Greischar, NB Rawlings, M Ricard and RJ Davidson, Long-term Meditators Self-induce High-amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, November 16, 2004, volume 101, number 46.
http://www.pnas.org/content/101/46/16369.full

4. Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M., Ridgeway, V. A., Soulsby, J. M., & Lau, M. A. (2000). Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(4), 615-23.

There is also a book on the subject: Segal, Z.V., Williams, J.M.G., & Teasdale, J.D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York: Guilford Press.

5. Kabat-Zinn, J., Wheeler, E., Light, T., Skillings, A., Scharf, M. J., Cropley, T. G., et al. (1998). Influence of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention on rates of skin clearing in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis undergoing phototherapy (UVB) and photochemotherapy (PUVA). Psychosomatic Medicine, 60(5), 625.

6. Le Nouvel Observateur, 22-28 April 2010, Les Pouvoirs de la meditation, p13.

7. US Army official website.
http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/08/04/43269-mindfulness-helps-soldiers-cope/