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MONDAY, Nov. 19, 2018 (HealthDay News) — A non-trauma-focused therapy, transcendental meditation (TM), can decrease the severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among veterans, according to a study published online Nov. 15 in The Lancet Psychiatry<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Sanford Nidich, Ed.D., from the Maharishi University of Management Research Institute in Fairfield, Iowa, and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial including 203 veterans with a current diagnosis of PTSD resulting from active military service. Participants were randomly assigned to a TM group (68 participants), prolonged exposure therapy (PE) group (68 participants), or an active control group of PTSD health education (HE; 67 participants). Each treatment was provided in 12 sessions over 12 weeks. TM and HE were provided mainly in a group setting, while PE was given individually.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that on the change in Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) score from baseline to three-month posttest, TM was significantly noninferior to PE (difference between groups in mean change, \u22125.9; 95 percent confidence interval, \u221214.3 to 2.4; P = 0.0002). Significant reductions in the CAPS score were found for TM versus HE (\u221214.6; 95 percent confidence interval, \u221223.3 to \u22125.9; P = 0.0009) and PE versus HE (\u22128.7; 95 percent confidence interval, \u221217.0 to \u22120.32; P = 0.041) in standard superiority comparisons. Clinically significant improvements on the CAPS score were seen for 61, 42, and 32 percent of those receiving TM, PE, and HE, respectively. <\/p>\n
“Our findings provide further evidence that PTSD treatments can be effective without an exposure component,” Nidich said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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