Meditation, this natural anxiolytic to fight anxiety

So leave this anxiolytic in its box and close your eyes instead. It is now proven that when it comes to calming anxiety disorders, meditation can work just as well as medications. This is demonstrated in this study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry on November 9, 2022.

The experiment was conducted on a sample of 276 adults with anxiety disorders divided into two groups. The former took 10 to 20 mg of Lexapro per day, the generic name for the molecule escitalopram, an antidepressant also used for anxiety. The other group practiced mindfulness meditation in two and a half hour classes per week and at home for 45 minutes each day. They also participated in a full day retreat after 5-6 weeks. The meditation course, titled Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), is an approach developed over 40 years ago by Jon Kabat-Zinn, based on Buddhist vipassana meditation. After 8 weeks, both groups showed an approximately 20% reduction in anxiety-related symptoms.

An alternative to avoid side effects

This discovery is invaluable when you know the potential side effects of escitalopram: diarrhea, loss of desire, impotence, nausea, constipation or at worst suicidal thoughts. However, Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, who led this study, points this out the meditative method is not without its drawbacks. Highlight the constraints of time and money posed by the fact of having to follow this practice so assiduously, but also by its long-term effects.

Research has found this outat week 24, only 28% of the patients assigned to meditation were still practicing their exercises, while 52% of the other group were still taking their medications.

But for the researcher the goal is not necessarily to replace drugs with meditation, but to add new treatment options. Furthermore, he would like the practice to be covered by insurance companies. And there we breathe …

Cover photo credit: Vlada Karpovich from baseimage via Canva.