Psychiatry Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2016
Journal
BJPsych Open
Volume
2
Issue
2
First Page
195
Last Page
198
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.002394
Abstract
: Late-life depression affects 2-6% of seniors aged 60 years and above. Patients are increasingly embracing non-pharmacological therapies, many of which have not been scientifically evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate a category of meditation, automatic self-transcending meditation (ASTM), in alleviating symptoms of depression when augmenting treatment as usual (NCT02149810). The preliminary results of an ongoing single-blind randomised controlled trial comparing a training programme involving ASTM with a wait-list control indicate that a 12-week ASTM programme may lead to significantly greater reductions in depression and anxiety severity. As such, ASTM may be an effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of late-life depression.
DECLARATION OF INTEREST: R.I.N. is Director of Research and Health Promotion for the Art of Living Foundation, Canada and supervised the staff providing ASTM training.
COPYRIGHT AND USAGE: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
