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Transcendental Meditation reduced PTSD symptoms among war refugees

Recent data show the Transcendental Meditation technique significantly decreased posttraumatic stress among Congolese war refugees.

The Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique is a meditative practice that involves individuals silently repeating a mantra, usually a sound indicated by the instructor. The goal of practice is to transcend thinking, so that individuals’ minds are free of thought and negativity. Practicing twice a day was recommended by instructors of this study.

Brian Rees, MD, MPH, of the United States Army Reserve Medical Corps, and colleagues observed the effects TM had on 11 Congolese war refugees with PTSD. Study participants, aged 21 to 44 years, had been exposed to combat, sexual assault, torture and other traumatic abuse resulting from violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the study period, participants were living in a Ugandan refugee camp.

Researchers used the Posttraumatic Stress disorder Checklist for Civilians to determine the severity of study participants’ PTSD symptoms. The test rates severity on a scale from 17 to 85; scores lower than 35 indicate subsiding PTSD symptoms.

Study participants had an initial average score of 68.5 at baseline, which increased to 77.9 during the third follow-up 60 days later. After practicing TM for 10 days, the average score dropped to 48. A month after practicing, the average score was 35.3.

“What makes this study interesting is when we tested them in the 90 days before they began the TM technique, their PTSD scores kept going up. Once they started the TM technique, their PTSD scores plummeted,” study researcher Fred Travis, PhD, director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University, Iowa, said in a press release.

These findings confirm results of a previous study conducted by Rees and colleagues that assessed the effects of TM on a separate group of Congolese war refugees. The previous study, published in April 2013, followed participants for up to 135 days.

Disclosure: The study was supported by a grant from the David Lynch Foundation.