Meditation May Help Depression, Anxiety, Pain

Meditation may help relieve depression, anxiety and pain. That’s the conclusion of a new review of research in the field. Researchers looked at 47 studies. They included a total of 3,515 people. The studies looked at the effects of meditation on a variety of conditions. Besides mental health, they included eating habits, sleep and weight control. The studies showed moderately strong evidence of benefit for depression, anxiety and pain. Improvements were about 5% to 10% in anxiety symptoms, compared with a “control” group. This group did some other activity that was used as a placebo, or non-treatment. Symptoms of depression improved 10% to 20% compared with placebo. The effects on pain varied depending on the type of pain. Researchers found there was not enough good evidence of benefit from meditation for any other conditions.