Treating Depression
Transcendental meditation ‘can treat depression’
Those with depression reported that their symptoms had nearly halved within three months of starting the treatment, and the effects were maintained across the rest of the year-long study.
“These results are encouraging and provide support for testing the efficacy of transcendental meditation … in the treatment of clinical depression,” said Hector Myers, the co-author of one of the studies and professor and director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Photo by Claude Piché
“There’s a great need for alternative approaches for depression”
In a 2018 study written about on the Harvard Gazette medical researchers comprised of psychologists and psychiatrists had examined benefits of meditation as an alternative to drugs in treating depression.
“Many people don’t respond to the frontline interventions,” said Dr. Benjamin Shapero, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Depression Clinical and Research Program. “Individual cognitive behavioral therapy is helpful for many people; antidepressant medications help many people. But it’s also the case that many people don’t benefit from them as well. There’s a great need for alternative approaches.”
Dr. Shapero worked with expert Dr. Gaëlle Desbordes, an instructor in radiology at Harvard Medical School and a neuroscientist at MGH’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, to explore one alternative approach: mindfulness-based meditation.
The video illustrates that with mindfulness meditation there is an increased capacity for being able to listen to one’s body and thus disengage from negative thoughts.
Video Harvard University
“A regular practice can help your brain better manage stress and anxiety that can trigger depression.”
Stress and anxiety are major triggers of depression, and meditation can alter your reaction to those feelings. "Meditation trains the brain to achieve sustained focus, and to return to that focus when negative thinking, emotions, and physical sensations intrude — which happens a lot when you feel stressed and anxious," says Dr. John W. Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
Meditation has been found to change certain brain regions that are specifically linked with depression. For instance, scientists have shown that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) becomes hyperactive in depressed people. The mPFC is often called the "me center" because this is where you process information about yourself, such as worrying about the future and ruminating about the past. When people get stressed about life, the mPFC goes into overdrive.
Photo by Claudia Wolff
Reducing Symptoms of Depression with Transcendental Meditation
“The findings of these studies have important implications for improving mental health and reducing the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality,” said Dr. Nidich.
Participants in both studies who practiced the transcendental meditation program showed significant reductions in depressive symptoms compared to health education controls.
The largest decreases were found in those participants who had indications of clinically significant depression, with those practicing transcendental meditation showing an average reduction in depressive symptoms of 48 percent.
“These results are encouraging and provide support for testing the efficacy of transcendental meditation as a therapeutic adjunct in the treatment of clinical depression,” said Hector Myers, PhD, study co-author and professor and director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at U.C.L.A.
Photo by Valentin Salj
Mindfulness meditation research at stress reduction clinic
With an ever-expanding interest in mindfulness and meditation to ease mental health issues, this Boston Evening article explores how meditation can help in controlling depression.
Molecular biologist Matthieu Ricard believes the habit of “rumination,” or dwelling on one idea, especially a negative thought, is a factor in depression. Ricard built on the foundation of his scientific training as he shifted the focus of his attention to a more metaphysical approach when he became a Buddhist monk in Nepal.
In Western cultures, mindfulness which is based on Buddhist theory, was popularized in the 1970s by University of Massachusetts professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, a cognitive scientist who founded the university’s Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine.
Ricard, who has a Ph.D in molecular genetics finds the techniques of calming the mind in meditation promising to ease the potentially negative effects of rumination and other mental health challenges.
Read the full article at Boston Evening…
Photo: Buddhist monk Barry Kerzin participating in neuropsychology meditation research at Harvard.
Photo Boston Evening