Mindfulness Meditation Therapy Researched
Psychologists research Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and variations for alcohol relapse prevention, social anxiety, panic, PTDS, OCD, Bi-Polar and other conditions.
We're far beyond the oooohs and ahhhhs of tv celebrity shows announcing that mindfulness offers miracles of personal growth.
There is now a vast amount of research on the importance of learning mindfulness, and a lot of clinical experience supporting that. Personally, I have been teaching mindfulness in a mental health context for 5 years.
Just this summer research came out on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based workshops for social anxiety. Not long ago Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy was found to be as effective as medication at preventing depression relapse, and a lot less expensive and intrusive. Mindfulness-Based protocols for generalized anxiety have been created and are in use.
Taking a look through PubMed.Gov, a site that gives abstracts of most important medical and mental health research, I found studies on the following:
OCD- obsessive compulsive disorder
Bi-Polar Disorder
Medically unexplained symptoms
Subclinical paranoia
Fertility problems
Women with cancer
PTSD in Veterans
Headaches
Diabetes patients
Bodily Distress Syndrome
Traumatic Brain Injury (TMI)
Health anxiety
Life goals clarification
Clearly, the final story on mindfulness interventions has not yet been written. Researchers and practitioners are actively finding new and useful applications.