Benefits of Meditation: You Don’t Need Years, Just a Week

A specific type of meditation is beneficial after just 5 days of training.

Meditation may improve mood and attention. Long-term Buddhist meditators can increase gamma-band EEG activity during meditation (Journal Watch Psychiatry Dec 8 2004). However, to demonstrate meditation-specific effects, researchers would need a standardized, easy-to-teach form of meditation. In this study, 40 Chinese undergraduates naive to any such training were randomized to receive training in either integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a specific meditative technique developed in China in the 1990s, or relaxation training. IBMT focused not on thought control, but on restful alertness, awareness of body, and breathing. Group sessions for both types of training lasted 20 minutes daily for 5 days. IBMT sessions were presented on compact …

Reviewing Author

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Benefits of Meditation: You Don’t Need Years, Just a Week

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Reviewing Author