The effect of the transcendental meditation technique on anxiety level

Abstract

Two weeks of twice-daily practice of the transcendental Meditation (TM) technique was compared with 2 weeks of twice-daily practice of passive relaxation as a means of reduction of anxiety, as measured by the Trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Thirty-three graduate and undergraduate students were assigned randomly to a relaxation group and a TM group. After a 2-week experimental interval, the relaxation and meditation Ss, as well as between conditions of the relaxation-mediation group; TM was significantly more effective in reducing anxiety level. Thus, the anxiety-reducing effect of the practice of TM cannot be attributed merely to sitting quietly twice daily, although additional research must determine the extent to which S expectations for change contributed to this effect.

The Effect of Meditation on Self-Reported Measures of Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Perfectionism in a College Population

“…Another meta-analysis reported similar reductions in trait anxiety through the use of TM over other forms of meditation and relaxation, which the authors attributed to its "greater degree of effortlessness" (Eppley, Abrams, & Shear, 1989, p. 972). Since the 1970s, over 700 published studies in over 160 professional scientific journals have documented the effectiveness of TM in reducing depression (Brooks & Scarano, 1985;Ferguson & Gowan, 1976;Van den Berg & Mulder, 1976), anxiety (Dillbeck, 1977;Eppley et al, 1989;Sheppard, Staggers, & John, 1997), stress (Dillbeck & Orne-Johnson, 1987), and improving academic performance and school behavior (Barnes, Bauza, & Treiber, 2003;Kember, 1985). Therefore, if TM is effective in a college population, it offers considerable potential as an alternative psychotherapeutic and preventative tool for college and university counseling centers.…”

Role of Yoga and Meditation in Prevention of Obesity.

“…Both these techniques have been reported to reduce stress and anxiety in subjects of the intervention group significantly more than that in the control group, by several authors. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] (Table 1) Researchers have reported improvement in eating behavior following intervention with yoga and meditation. They have also shown significant reduction of eating disorder and Binge Eating Disorder.…”

“…The criteria for exclusion were:  studies other than Randomized Controlled Trial  multiple interventions given simultaneously to study group 339  control groups receiving some other intervention Finally 15 articles were eligible to be included for review. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Data was extracted from the selected articles and sorted according to outcomes studied and arranged in tables in chronological sequence. Though inclusion criteria were kept as publications in past 50 years, only 2 studies published in the last millennium were eligible to be included.…”

“…Though inclusion criteria were kept as publications in past 50 years, only 2 studies published in the last millennium were eligible to be included. 5,6 Figure 1:-Flowchart showing selection of studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria…”

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Eating disorders including Binge Eating Disorder, abnormal eating behaviour, emotional eating and overeating were all shown to have improved. 8,[10][11][12][13] Alcohol use and relapse of alcohol addiction were also reported to have decreased significantly.…”