Meditation can help reduce anxiety, according to new research. Meditation reduces the body's inflammatory response and also causes a dramatic decrease in stress hormone levels.
In comparison, people who took the stress management course actually had an increased stress response.
Dr. Elizabeth A. Hodge, the study's first author, said: "A meditation course is a relatively inexpensive approach to treatment, and these findings reinforce the argument that it can improve stress tolerance."
The study involved 89 people who were diagnosed with anxiety disorder. Half received an 8 week meditation course and the other half received a stress management course.
Because the courses were very similar in many ways, the participants were unaware of what the researchers were planning to study. This helps reduce a known psychological effect: when people are expected to be better, they magically become better. This is akin to the placebo effect.
Before and after two different courses, the participants received stress tests. They included a short speech to an audience.
Dr. Hodge explained, "We tested the patients' tolerance for stress because this is really the main question: can we get people to cope better with stress?"
Scientists also monitored levels of stress hormones. They found that those who took the stress management course saw a slight increase in physiological levels of stress hormones in the second trial.
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In the meditation group, however, participants showed a huge difference in stress response in the second trial. Not only that, people said they felt they were less stressed after the meditation course.
The study was published in the journal Psychiatry Research.
Oleg Proshkin