Effects of Sahaj Samadhi meditation on heart rate variability and depressive symptoms in patients with late-life depression – RETRACTED

Abstract

BackgroundLate-life depression (LLD) is a disabling disorder and antidepressants are ineffective in as many as 60% of cases. Converging evidence shows a strong correlation between LLD and subsequent risk of cardiovascular disease. There is a need for new, well-tolerated, non-pharmacological augmentation interventions that can treat depressive symptoms as well as improve heart rate variability (HRV), an important prognostic marker for development of subsequent cardiovascular disease. Meditation-based techniques are of interest based on positive findings in other samples.AimsWe aimed to assess the efficacy of Sahaj Samadhi meditation (SSM), an underevaluated, standardised and manualised meditation intervention, on HRV and depressive symptoms.MethodEighty-three men and women aged 60–85 years, with mild to moderate depression and receiving treatment as usual (TAU) were randomised to either the SSM or TAU arm. Those allocated to SSM attended 4 consecutive days of group meditation training, using personalised mantras followed by 11 weekly reinforcement sessions. HRV and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD; 17-item) score were measured at baseline and 12 weeks.ResultsAll time and frequency domain measures of HRV did not significantly change in either arm. However, there was significant improvement in the SSM arm, compared with TAU, on the HRSD (difference in mean, 2.66; 95% CI 0.26–5.05; P = 0.03).ConclusionsCompared with TAU, SSM is associated with improvements in depressive symptoms but does not significantly improve HRV in patients with LLD. These results need to be replicated in subsequent studies incorporating a group-based, active control arm.Declaration of interestR.I.N. is the Director of Research and Health Promotion for the Art of Living Foundation, Canada and supervised the staff providing Sahaj Samadhi meditation. S.R. has received research funding from Satellite Healthcare for a mindfulness meditation trial in patients on haemodialysis. The remaining authors report no financial or other relationship relevant to the subject of this article.

Sahaj Samadhi Meditation versus a Health Enhancement Program for depression in chronic pain: protocol for a randomized controlled trial and implementation evaluation

“…The MEDOTATE program includes SSM training by a certified meditation teacher for 4 consecutive days (2 h/ day) in the first week, followed by 75-minute (min)/week reinforcement sessions for 11 weeks. Following the protocol of a previous RCT [36], this is a longer version of the program that is taught in the community to accommodate the greater illness burden in the study population as compared to the community. On day 1, participants learn the nature of meditation, and then undergo personal guided meditation.…”

“…The resulting estimated sample size is 64 participants in each arm. We inflated the sample size by 25% to account for dropouts, which is reasonable given an attrition rate of 13% seen in the pilot study [36]. Therefore, we will recruit and randomize a total of 160 participants, with 80 participants in each arm.…”

“…While rare [36], the most commonly reported adverse effects from SSM include mild anxiety caused by the relaxation itself. Other adverse effects that may be experienced include boredom and feeling mildly detached from one's surroundings.…”

“…Eligibility criteria Criteria Rationale Inclusion criteria 1. >45 years of age; chronic pain (pain ≥3 months duration in any body region by self-report)Older people with chronic pain are disproportionately affected by harms from prescribed opioids such as overdose and death[36] 2. On LTOT (any opioid at any dose for ≥3 months by self-report)…”

Meditation and Cardiovascular Health: What is the Link?

“…1,7,9,10 Moreover, improvement in the subjectively experienced levels of general stress, depression and quality of sleep have been reported. 8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Additionally, alterations on a neurophysiological level have been suggested.…”