Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness may Treat Mild Concussion

Chronic symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury vary hugely and are difficult to treat. But a new study set out to investigate the impact of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness‐based interventions on people with chronic concussion. The findings of the study are published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. "This was a passion project for me in the sense that it links these two areas of interest, concussion work with meditation and yoga," states Acabchuk, the study's lead author.

"We know from other research that yoga and meditation may help reduce systemic inflammation, and we know that they help increase self-compassion and reduce rumination if people are dealing with symptoms of depression."

Most research looking at the effectiveness of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness on concussions have been small. For their meta-analysis, the author and her team pulled together data from 22 various studies, including both published and unpublished work, that altogether included a total of 539 study volunteers, and looked at the impact of the 3 interventions on outcome categories - including cognitive performance, physical health, mental health, quality of life, and social/occupational performance and on specific health outcomes, such as depression, attention, anxiety, and fatigue. The team then applied advanced meta-analytical techniques to compile and assess the results of those studies.

"The main results that we saw were a significant decline in depression and fatigue," Acabchuk states. "Particularly with fatigue, it was a large effect size, which is impressive in the sense that fatigue is a tricky symptom for patients to deal with."

This first‐ever meta‐analysis on meditation, yoga, and mindfulness‐based interventions for chronic symptoms of TBI offers hope. Still, it highlights the need for rigorous new trials to advance clinical applications and explore mechanistic pathways.

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Source-Medindia