The Impact of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Government Payments to Physicians in Quebec: An Update

Herron, R. E.; Hillis, Stephen L.

doi:10.4278/0890-1171-14.5.284

Cited by 38 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…Herron and Hillis, 2000 [24], retrospectively compared government payments to physicians for 1418 Quebec health insurance enrollees who practiced the Transcendental Meditation (TM) to payments for 1418 randomly selected and matched enrollees who did not. Long term health outcomes were assumed to be equal for both groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cost-effective? a systematic review

Herman

Craig

Caspi

2005

BMC Complement Altern Med

182

121

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BackgroundOut-of-pocket expenditures of over $34 billion per year in the US are an apparent testament to a widely held belief that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies have benefits that outweigh their costs. However, regardless of public opinion, there is often little more than anecdotal evidence on the health and economic implications of CAM therapies. The objectives of this study are to present an overview of economic evaluation and to expand upon a previous review to examine the current scope and quality of CAM economic evaluations.MethodsThe data sources used were Medline, AMED, Alt-HealthWatch, and the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Citation Index; January 1999 to October 2004. Papers that reported original data on specific CAM therapies from any form of standard economic analysis were included. Full economic evaluations were subjected to two types of quality review. The first was a 35-item checklist for reporting quality, and the second was a set of four criteria for study quality (randomization, prospective collection of economic data, comparison to usual care, and no blinding).ResultsA total of 56 economic evaluations (39 full evaluations) of CAM were found covering a range of therapies applied to a variety of conditions. The reporting quality of the full evaluations was poor for certain items, but was comparable to the quality found by systematic reviews of economic evaluations in conventional medicine. Regarding study quality, 14 (36%) studies were found to meet all four criteria. These exemplary studies indicate CAM therapies that may be considered cost-effective compared to usual care for various conditions: acupuncture for migraine, manual therapy for neck pain, spa therapy for Parkinson's, self-administered stress management for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, pre- and post-operative oral nutritional supplementation for lower gastrointestinal tract surgery, biofeedback for patients with "functional" disorders (eg, irritable bowel syndrome), and guided imagery, relaxation therapy, and potassium-rich diet for cardiac patients.ConclusionWhereas the number and quality of economic evaluations of CAM have increased in recent years and more CAM therapies have been shown to be of good value, the majority of CAM therapies still remain to be evaluated.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cost-effective? a systematic review

Herman

Craig

Caspi

2005

BMC Complement Altern Med

182

121

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“…One study showed decreased pain perception amongst practitioners of the TM technique [8]. Other studies of large groups of TM practitioners suggest decreased usage of medical services [9,10]. Randomised, controlled studies on TM have shown statistically significant reductions in depression compared with control groups [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Treatment of fibromyalgia at the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Norway II—a 24-month follow-up pilot study

Rasmussen¹,

Mikkelsen²,

Haugen

et al. 2012

Clin Rheumatol

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Treatments offered at the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Norway are based on Maharishi Vedic Medicine (MVM). MVM is a consciousness-based revival by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program of the ancient Ayurvedic medicine tradition in India. To extend from 6 to 24 months, a pilot study of the effects of the treatment program at the Health Centre on fibromyalgia. Retesting 2 years after a clinical trial. In this intention to treat study, 31 women with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia received an individually tailored program of (1) physiological purification therapy (Maharishi Panchakarma) and (2) Ayurvedic recommendations regarding daily routine and diet including a novel approach to food intolerance. Five subjects chose to learn TM for stress reduction, pain management and personal development. All were recommended Ayurvedic herbal products for follow-up treatment. A modified Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) that included seven dimensions. Scores at 24 months follow-up were compared with pre-treatment scores. At 24-months follow-up, there were significant reductions (26% to 44%) in six of the seven fibromyalgia dimensions: impairment of working ability, pain, tiredness, morning tiredness, stiffness and anxiety. The 7th, depression, decreased 32% (borderline significant). At 24 months, the four subjects who continued practising TM, had almost no symptoms and significantly lower FIQ change scores (-92% to 97%) than the non-meditators on all outcomes. This pilot study suggests that the treatments and health promotion programs offered at the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Norway lead to long-term reductions in symptoms of fibromyalgia, which is considered a treatment-resistant condition, and further studies are warranted.

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“…For example, the significant role of brain coherence in improving health, delineated by Grakov, has application to understanding why forms of meditation that increase such coherence 5-7 also improve health, 8,9 and may be able to do so when all else fails. 10,11 In the case of sense perception, there is no reason why the assumptions on which VSHA is based, its mathematical model of input and output matrices, should 12 in which olfactory sensation fails in a mystifying way for specific molecules.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Scanning—A New System of Medical Assessment And Treatment: Part I. Assessment

Ewing

Hankey

2007

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

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The Impact of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Government Payments to Physicians in Quebec: An Update

Abstract: The results suggest that the TM technique reduced payments to physicians between 5% and 13% annually relative to comparison subjects over 6 years. Randomized studies are recommended.

Cited by 38 publications

References 38 publications

Is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cost-effective? a systematic review

Is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cost-effective? a systematic review

Treatment of fibromyalgia at the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Norway II—a 24-month follow-up pilot study

Virtual Scanning—A New System of Medical Assessment And Treatment: Part I. Assessment

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