Effects of cardiac rehabilitation with and without meditation on myocardial blood flow using quantitative positron emission tomography: A pilot study.

Background: Psychosocial stress is recognized as a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). High rates of CHD in African-Americans may be related to psychosocial stress. However, standard cardiac rehabilitation (CR) usually does not include a systematic stress-reduction technique.

Non-trauma-focused meditation versus exposure therapy in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex and difficult-to-treat disorder, affecting 10-20% of military veterans. Previous research has raised the question of whether a non-trauma-focused treatment can be as effective as trauma exposure therapy in reducing PTSD symptoms. This study aimed to compare the non-trauma-focused practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) with prolonged exposure therapy (PE) in a non-inferiority clinical trial, and to compare both therapies with a control of PTSD health education (HE).

Effects of Lifestyle Modification on Telomerase Gene Expression in Hypertensive Patients: A Pilot Trial of Stress Reduction and Health Education Programs in African Americans.

Background: African Americans suffer from disproportionately high rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Psychosocial stress, lifestyle and telomere dysfunction contribute to the pathogenesis of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. This study evaluated effects of stress reduction and lifestyle modification on blood pressure, telomerase gene expression and lifestyle factors in African Americans.

Design and rationale of a comparative effectiveness trial evaluating transcendental meditation against established therapies for PTSD.

Background: Although meditation therapies such as the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique are commonly used to assist with stress and stress-related diseases, there remains a lack of rigorous clinical trial research establishing the relative efficacy of these treatments overall and for populations with psychiatric illness. This study uses a comparative effectiveness design to assess the relative benefits of TM to those obtained from a gold-standard cognitive behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a Veteran population.

Methods And Design: This paper describes the rationale and design of an in progress randomized controlled trial comparing TM to an established cognitive behavioral treatment - Prolonged Exposure (PE) - and an active control condition (health education [HE]) for PTSD.

A randomized controlled trial of the effects of transcendental meditation on quality of life in older breast cancer patients.

Unlabelled: This single-blind, randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of the Transcendental Meditation program plus standard care as compared with standard care alone on the quality of life (QOL) of older women (>or=55 years) with stage II to IV breast cancer. One hundred and thirty women (mean age = 63.8) were randomly assigned to either experimental (n = 64) or control (n = 66) groups.

A randomized controlled trial on effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on blood pressure, psychological distress, and coping in young adults.

Background: Psychological distress contributes to the development of hypertension in young adults. This trial assessed the effects of a mind-body intervention on blood pressure (BP), psychological distress, and coping in college students.

Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 298 university students randomly allocated to either the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program or wait-list control.