Differential reduction of psychological distress by three different types of meditation-based mental training programs: A randomized clinical trial.

Objective: There is little knowledge about which types of meditation-based training are effective for alleviating which facets of psychological distress. We investigated shared and specific effects of three meditation-based training programs on distress.

Method: 332 healthy adults were assigned to a retest control cohort or to one of three 3-month mental training cohorts including: the cultivation of mindfulness-based attention (), socio-affective skills such as compassion (), or metacognitive skills such as perspective taking ().