Meditation for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review

RAND researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis that synthesized evidence from randomized controlled trials of meditation interventions to provide estimates of their efficacy and safety in treating adults diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Outcomes of interest incl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2017
Main Authors: Hilton, Lara, Maher, Alicia Ruelaz, Colaiaco, Benjamin, Apaydin, Eric, Sorbero, Melony E, Booth, Marika, Shanman, Roberta M, Hempel, Susanne
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Health care policy
RAND Corporation
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:RAND researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis that synthesized evidence from randomized controlled trials of meditation interventions to provide estimates of their efficacy and safety in treating adults diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Outcomes of interest included PSTD symptoms, depression symptoms, anxiety, health-related quality of life, functional status, and adverse events. Meta-analyses were conducted using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method for random-effects models. Quality of evidence was assessed using the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (or GRADE) approach. In total, ten trials on meditation interventions for PTSD with 643 participants met inclusion criteria. Across interventions, adjunctive meditation interventions of mindfulness-based stress reduction, yoga, and the mantram repetition program improve PTSD symptoms and depression compared with control groups based on low to moderate quality of evidence. Effects were positive but not statistically significant for quality of life and anxiety, and no studies addressed functional status. The variety of meditation intervention types, the short follow-up times, and the quality of studies limited analyses. There were no adverse events in the included studies, but only half of the studies reported on safety. In order to increase confidence in these findings, researchers should conduct more high-quality studies on meditation as adjunctive treatment with PTSD-diagnosed participant samples large enough to detect statistical differences in outcomes.