Frontier mental health research: psychedelics & drug studies

Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.

3 papers

Meditation and yoga for posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials

Autumn M. Gallegos, Hugh F. Crean, Wilfred R. Pigeon, Kathi L. Heffner
Clinical Psychology Review Summary & key facts 2017 178 citations

This paper pooled results from 19 randomized trials with 1,173 adults to see if meditation and yoga change PTSD symptoms. Overall, these mind–body practices were linked to a small-to-medium reduction in PTSD symptoms (effect size = −0.39). The authors found no big differences by type of practice, who was studied,…

Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research Resilience and Mental Health

Pranayamas and their neurophysiological effects

Stephany Campanelli, AdrianoBretanha Lopes Tort, Bruno Lobão‐Soares
International Journal of Yoga Summary & key facts 2020 37 citations

This 2020 review looked at English studies on yogic breathing (pranayamas) published from 2008 to 2018. The authors screened 1,588 articles and analyzed 14 that met their criteria. Those 14 papers generally reported effects of pranayama on emotional states and on thinking or cognitive performance. The review also said the…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions

The effects of body scan meditation: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Ruochen Gan, Liuyi Zhang, Shulin Chen

The authors reviewed 14 randomized trials to see if doing only body scan meditation helps people. A pooled analysis found a small improvement in mindfulness compared with passive control (Hedge's g = 0.268, 95% CI 0.032 to 0.504, p < .05). However, the studies were low quality, results varied a…

Art Therapy and Mental Health COVID-19 and Mental Health Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
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