Loving-Kindness Meditation vs Cognitive Processing Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Veterans

Loving kindness meditation

There is a lot of publicity about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. But does it work for PTSD. Kearney and colleagues (2021) conducted a randomized clinical trial with 184 veterans with PTSD. They were assigned to group loving-kindness meditation or group cognitive processing therapy (CPT).

The aim of the trial was to investigate if loving kindness meditation was noninferior to CPT.

The differences in the decrease from baseline to 6-month follow-up for measures of PTSD for loving-kindness meditation were very similar to CPT. Furthermore they were within predefined noninferiority margins of 5 points on the CAPS-5. Also attendance was better for loving-kindness meditation.

Reduction in PTSD Scores

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance  

Among veterans with PTSD, loving-kindness meditation resulted in reductions in PTSD symptoms. This suggest that there may be an alternative for PTSD sufferers who do not wish to do a trauma focussed therapy. More research about practice sustainability and long-term gains would be useful. None the less there is an option to explore if clients don’t wish to do trauma focussed therapy

Reference

Kearney DJ, Malte CA, Storms M, Simpson TL. Loving-Kindness Meditation vs Cognitive Processing Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Veterans: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Apr 1;4(4):e216604. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.6604. Erratum in: JAMA Netw Open. 2021 May 3;4(5):e2115843. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.15843. PMID: 33861329; PMCID: PMC8052593.

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