The Transcendental Meditation Program
Transcendental Meditation technique reduces stress, improves mental health among women with breast cancer
According to a new study published in Integrative Cancer
Therapies (Vol. 8, No. 3: September 2009), the Transcendental Meditation program® helped women with breast cancer reduce
stress and improve their mental health and emotional well-being.
The two-year study was conducted in Chicago, Illinois at St. Joseph’s Hospital and involved 130 women with breast cancer, 55 years and older. The women were randomly assigned either to the Transcendental Meditation technique or to a usual care control group. Patients were administered quality of life measures, including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast, every six months for two years. The average intervention period was 18 months. This study found that the women who learned and practiced the TM® technique experienced significant improvements in their overall quality of life as compared with control subjects.
It has been known for some time that stress contributes to the onset and progression of breast cancer, but this is the first time that a randomized, controlled study has verified the usefulness of the daily practice of the TM technique for helping cancer patients reduce stress and improve their health and well-being.
The study was a collaboration among the Center for Healthy Aging at Saint Joseph Hospital, the Institute for Health Services, Research and Policy Studies at Northwestern University, the Department of Psychology at Indiana State University, and the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management.
This research was supported by grants from the Retirement Research Foundation of Chicago and the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, MD.
“It is wonderful that physicians now have a range of interventions to use, including Transcendental Meditation, to benefit their patients with cancer,” said Rhoda Pomerantz, M.D., study co-author and chief of gerontology, Saint Joseph Hospital. “I believe this approach should be appreciated and utilized more widely.”
“As we celebrate advances in early detection and treatment with breast cancer, we must also recognize the many psychological and social adverse effects of the disease and its treatment,” said co-author David Cella, currently professor and chair of the Department of Medical Social Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“This randomized clinical trial of Transcendental Meditation in women with breast cancer provides solid evidence that these unwanted effects can be reduced using a safe, non-invasive approach,” Dr. Cella said.
