BACKGROUND Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders; meditative therapies are frequently sought by patients with anxiety as a complementary therapy. Although multiple reviews exist on the general health benefits of meditation, no review has been focused on the efficacy of meditation for anxiety specifically. METHODS Major medical databases were searched thoroughly with keywords related to various types of meditation AND anxiety. Over 1000 abstracts were screened, and 200+ full articles were reviewed. Only RCTs were included. The Boutron (2005) checklist to evaluate a report of a non-pharmaceutical trial (CLEAR-NPT) was used to assess study quality; 90% authors were contacted for additional information. Review Manager 5 was used for meta-analysis. RESULTS A total of 36 RCTs were included in the meta-analysis (2,466 observations). Most RCTs were conducted among patients with anxiety as a secondary concern. The study quality ranged from 0.3 to 1.0 on the 0.0–1.0 scale (mean = 0.72). Standardized mean difference (SMD) was −0.52 in comparison with waiting-list control (p < .001; 25 RCTs), −0.59 in comparison with attention control (p < .001; 7 RCTs), and −0.27 in comparison with alternative treatments (p < 0.01; 10 RCTs). 25 studies reported statistically superior outcomes in the meditation group compared to control. No adverse effects were reported. CONCLUSIONS This review demonstrates some efficacy of meditative therapies in reducing anxiety symptoms, which has important clinical implications for applying meditative techniques in treating anxiety. However, most studies measured only improvement in anxiety symptoms, but not anxiety disorders as clinically diagnosed.

BackgroundBenzodiazepines (BZD) misuse is a serious public health problem, especially among opiate-dependent patients with anxiety enrolled in methadone program because it puts patients at higher risk of life-threatening multiple drug overdoses. Both elevated anxiety and BZD misuse increase the risk for ex-addicts to relapse. However, there is no recent study to assess how serious the problem is and what factors are associated with BZD misuse. This study estimates the prevalence of BZD misuse in a methadone program, and provides information on the characteristics of BZD users compared to non-users.MethodsAn anonymous survey was carried out at a methadone program in Baltimore, MD, and all patients were invited to participate through group meetings and fliers around the clinic on a voluntary basis. Of the 205 returned questionnaires, 194 were complete and entered into final data analysis. Those who completed the questionnaire were offered a $5 gift card as an appreciation.Results47% of the respondents had a history of BZD use, and 39.8% used BZD without a prescription. Half of the BZD users (54%) started using BZD after entering the methadone program, and 61% of previous BZD users reported increased or resumed use after entering methadone program. Compared to the non-users, BZD users were more likely to be White, have prescribed medication for mental problems, have preexistent anxiety problems before opiate use, and had anxiety problems before entering methadone program. They reported more mental health problems in the past month, and had higher scores in anxiety state, depression and perceived stress (p < .05).ConclusionsImportant information on epidemiology of BZD misuse among methadone-maintenance patients suggests that most methadone programs do not address co-occurring anxiety problems, and methadone treatment may trigger onset or worsening of BZD misuse. Further study is needed to explore how to curb misuse and abuse of BZD in the addiction population, and provide effective treatments targeting simultaneously addiction symptoms, anxiety disorders and BZD misuse.

It is feasible to add breathing-based IMEA to outpatient treatment of cocaine addiction. Although a number of limitations exist for this pilot study, further large-scale clinical trials and therapy-development studies of IMEA for addiction are warranted.

The Complementary and Integrative Health Assessment for Practitioners (CIHAP) scale was developed to assess counselors' and other health-care providers' current knowledge of complementary and integrative health (CIH) and their interest in integrating CIH into their practices. Participants included 493 counselors, counselor educators, human services professionals, and other health professionals. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, along with measurement invariance, which was determined when this scale was compared to another validated complementary and integrative health scale. Results indicated that the CIHAP contains two subscales, openness to CIH and intentional practices, and that the overall scale has robust initial reliability and validity. It appears to be useful in capturing the attitudes and perceptions of mental health counselors and other health professionals toward complementary and integrative health.

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