Meditation as Good as Exposure for PTSD — and Probably Easier

In veterans with severe and chronic PTSD, transcendental meditation was noninferior to prolonged exposure, and both were superior to a control psycho-education program.

Interest in non-trauma-focused psychotherapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is increasing (NEJM JW Psychiatry Feb 20 2015; [e-pub] and Am J Psychiatry 2015; 172:430; NEJM JW Psychiatry Jul 12 2018; [e-pub] and Am J Psychiatry 2018; 175:979). While meditation has been found effective for PTSD in small and uncontrolled studies, it has not been compared to gold-standard trauma-focused psychotherapies such as prolonged exposure (PE). This randomized, controlled effectiveness trial compared 12 weeks of transcendental meditation (TM), PE, and psycho-education in 203 veterans with severe, chronic, predominantly combat-related PTSD. Multiple psychiatric and medical comorbidities were common, and about 70% were taking at least one psych…

Reviewing Author

Peter Roy-Byrne, MD

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Peter Roy-Byrne, MD

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Meditation as Good as Exposure for PTSD — and Probably Easier

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