Prevalence of harm in mindfulness-based stress reduction

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Mindfulness Studies

Background:

• Mindfulness meditation, particularly Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), is widely used for stress reduction.
• Concerns exist regarding potential harm associated with widespread MBSR program adoption.
• This study investigates harm indices related to MBSR for psychological and physical symptoms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate multiple indices of harm following Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
• To assess MBSR's impact on global psychological and physical symptoms, anxiety, depression, interpersonal discomfort, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism.
• To compare harm rates in MBSR participants versus a waitlist control group.

Main Methods:

• Intent-to-treat analyses with multiple imputations for missing data were employed.
• Data included a large observational dataset of community MBSR classes (n=2155) and randomized controlled trials (MBSR n=156, waitlist n=118).
• Harm was assessed by symptom changes, proportion of participants with increased symptoms, and clinically significant harm.

Main Results:

• No evidence suggests MBSR increases harm rates compared to waitlist controls across primary and secondary outcomes.
• Community-based MBSR demonstrated significant preventative effects against harm on multiple indices.
• MBSR was not found to be predictive of increased harm rates relative to no treatment.

Conclusions:

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) appears protective against multiple indices of harm.
• Engagement in MBSR is not associated with higher rates of harm compared to no treatment.
• Further research is warranted to characterize the small subset of MBSR participants who may experience harm.