PTSD Patients May Benefit From Transcendental Meditation

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Transcendental meditation may prove to be beneficial for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) sufferers or those with anxiety disorders, according to a new study.

A study by the researchers from the Medical College of Georgia found that 20 minutes of transcendental meditation (TM) twice every day can minimize the effects of PTSD or anxiety disorders, especially among active US service members.

Practitioners of the TM technique are advised to sit comfortably with eyes closed. It is recommended to be done twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon or any time it is convenient.To describe it, the authors wrote: "The experience of TM practice is characterized by repeated cycles of movement of attention from the active thinking level to more subtle levels, experience of a quiescent state at the subtlest thinking level, and movement of attention back to the more active levels."

According to Medical Daily, meditation offers a range of health benefits such as reduced blood pressure and use of antihypertensive medications which leads to the less likeliness of getting cardiovascular disease. The website also cited another study which found that those with 20 years of yoga practice have higher brain volumes than those of the same age but don't practice.

To explore if meditation can be used to aid PTSD or anxiety sufferers, the researchers looked 74 active-duty service members who are getting treatment from the Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center's Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic in Augusta.

The group was divided in half: one received the usual PTSD therapies while the other one had the usual PTSD treatment and transcendental meditation. The TM group was assigned an instructor and conducted 20-minute sessions twice every day.

After a month, more than 80 percent of the TM group were stable, decreased their medication intake or able to stop taking PTSD medication while 11 percent had to dose up on it, according to UPI. In the other group, only around 59 percent were stabilized, decreased or stopped taking the drugs while 40 percent had to increase their meds. The pattern was consistent in the following months. Overall, there was around 20 percent difference in the severity of the symptoms in the two groups.

Huffington Post points out that the study is one of the first to test out meditation on active-serve soldiers as meditation has been a part of veteran treatment and soldier training. The researchers concluded that TM could benefit PTSD sufferers as treatment and improvement and health but further research should still be conducted as to how this could be most effectively be applied to patients.