Mindfulness meditation, a technique pioneered at the UMMS Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, can be as effective against anxiety and depression as medication, says a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Media coverage of the research credits the world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program founded in 1979 at UMass Medical School.
The research, which was conducted at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, analyzed 47 randomized clinical trials of several meditation techniques, including mindfulness-based meditation and transcendental meditation, and found that “mindfulness meditation programs, in particular, show small improvements in anxiety, depression and pain.”
“Clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that a meditation program could have in addressing psychological stress,” concludes the report.
Many of the clinical trials analyzed in the new research used the mindfulness-based techniques pioneered at the UMMS Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society and now taught worldwide.
The Center for Mindfulness was established in 1995 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, as an outgrowth of the Stress Reduction Clinic he helped establish at UMMS in 1979. Since 2000, the center, which is dedicated to the integration of meditation and mindfulness into mainstream medicine and health care, has been directed by Saki Santorelli, EdD, professor of medicine. Dr. Kabat-Zinn is emeritus professor of medicine.
In reporting on the study, Boston.com cited UMMS as home to the pioneering program and referred to Kabat-Zinn as a “meditation guru.” Fox News calls Kabat-Zinn, the “hands-down leader in the field,” while NPR refers to Kabat-Zinn as the father of mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Read the full stories here:
Boston.com: Can meditation treat anxiety better than medication?
NPR: Mindfulness Meditation Can Help Relieve Anxiety And Depression
Fox Business: How to Work When You Feel Like Crap
Harvard Health Publications: Mindfulness medication may ease stress, mental anxiety
Related stories on UMassMedNow:
Santorelli presents mindfulness grand rounds at Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland
UMMS Center for Mindfulness brings signature program to China
UMMS mindfulness expert to Harper’s Bazaar: mindfulness can be as simple as paying attention
