Sources of non-specific effect in meditation

Explanatory factors for the observed effects of meditation and their particular importance in behaviour therapy research include the following 3 categories: Category 1. Factors which are common to all strategies such as social support or therapeutic contact. Many clinical researchers have observed that controls with high face validity seem more…

Sample size

Sample size is obviously a key factor in determining the validity and generality of trial outcomes. It needs to be determined carefully to ensure that the research time, effort and support costs invested in any clinical trial are not wasted. Ideally, clinical trials should be large enough to detect reliably…

Why is the Jadad score useless for meditation research?

The Jadad scoring system is a widely used method of rating RCTs for basic methodological rigour. However it seems to be inadequately structured to meaningfully discern the methodological standard of meditation trials. For instance, while all trials might be randomised, only a minority described randomisation methods and few use the…

Conceptual and methodological problems in meditation research

Meditation research to date has been plagued by conceptual and methodological problems. One of the most significant difficulties involves developing control strategies involving interventions which blinded participants might consider plausible, that have no specific therapeutic effects. Randomisation and management of other sources of bias is another area of concern; a…

The challenges of researching meditation

Researching meditation poses a unique challenge, since participants receiving the “inert” (or “placebo”) treatment must be involved in a placebo-like activity that nevertheless requires their active, conscious and conscientious involvement. They must also be sufficiently convinced of its authenticity to motivate them to participate at a level necessary to maintain…

Observational studies on the adverse effects of meditation

Shapiro (1992) observed the effects of vipassana meditation on a small group of meditators and found that while most participants experienced positive results, a small number of meditators experienced distinctly negative states. Glueck (1984) studied 110 participants and reported that the practice of transcendental meditation (TM) appeared to release repressed…