Relaxation Response

Benson, H .; Wallace, R., et al. Decreased drug abuse with Transcendental Meditation: A study of 1,862 subjects. In Drug Abuse: Proceedings of the International Conference, ed. Chris J. D. Zarafonetis, pp. 369-376. Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger, 1972. of Reduced Drug and Alcohol Use in 1862 students, while at Harvard, specifically studying the Tran... scendental Meditation technique. Dr. Wallace learned TM to directly experience Transcendental Consciousness. Dr. Wallace concluded TM is superior to the Relaxation Response. Dr. David Orme-Johnson compares the techniques. in reducing trait anxiety in a meta-analysis of 146 studies. Meta-Analysis 2 Decreased Trait Anxiety through the Transcendental Meditation technique Compared to Other Meditation and Relaxation Techniques. Trait anxiety, ones typical state of anxiety, is a key indicator of psychological relaxation. This meta-analysis compared all techniques on which trait anxiety had been studied, 146 independent outcomes. The subject populations included in the study were college, high school, adult, psychiatric or drug abuse patients, children, adult prisoners, juvenile offenders, and the elderly. Subjects with initially high and low levels of anxiety were also studied. The techniques studied were the Transcendental Meditation technique, Progressive Relaxation (PR), Benson's Relaxation Response technique, concentration meditation, Sanskrit mantra meditation with permissive attitude, EMG biofeedback, and placebo techniques. The study found that the Transcendental Meditation program had more than twice the effect size on reducing trait anxiety as all other treatments. All the other techniques scored no better than a placebo. The exception was Concentration Meditation, which was less effective than a placebo, indicating that concentration and control of the mind can exacerbate anxiety. This meta-analysis controlled for a number of possible confounding variables, including mental health status of the population, age, sex, experimental design, duration and hours of ...Read More