The Transcendental Meditation technique was found to produce significant improvements in overall mental health including areas worsened by anxiety, such as blood pressure, insomnia, emotional numbness, family problems, employment status, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Studies show TM can reduce anxiety
by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review
November 2013

A meta-analysis published in October in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that the Transcendental Meditation technique has a large effect on reducing trait anxiety for people with high anxiety.

This finding was based on combining the results of 16 randomized-controlled trials, the gold standard in medical research, to determine an overall effect. There were a total of 1,295 subjects in the studies.

Those studies of individuals with anxiety levels in the 90th percentile (higher than 90% of the rest of the adult population) showed dramatic reductions in anxiety down to the 57th percentile as a result of the Transcendental Meditation technique. This is just a little higher than the average anxiety level, which is the 50th percentile. Study groups that started in the 60th percentile, a little above average, showed more modest reductions, to the 48th percentile, a little below average.

"It makes sense that if you are not anxious to begin with, that the Transcendental Mediation technique isn't going to reduce your anxiety that much," said lead author David Orme-Johnson. "Groups with elevated anxiety received significant relief from the Transcendental Meditation technique, and that reduction occurred rapidly in the first few weeks of practice."

The Transcendental Meditation technique was also found to produce significant improvements in other areas worsened by anxiety, such as blood pressure, insomnia, emotional numbness, family problems, employment status, and drug and alcohol abuse.

"Control groups who received usual treatment didn't show dramatic reductions in anxiety," said coauthor Vernon Barnes of Georgia Regents University, "In fact, control groups that were highly anxious to begin with, if anything, tended to become more anxious over time."

The Transcendental Meditation technique was compared with various control groups, including treatment-as-usual, individual and group psychotherapy, and various relaxation techniques.

Trait anxiety is a measure of how anxious a person usually is, as opposed to state anxiety, which is fleeting and refers to how anxious one is at a particular moment.

© Copyright 2013 Maharishi University of Management