Meta-analysis finds Transcendental Meditation reduces post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms across populations and cultures

(Press-News.org) Just published is the third new study showing that TM is highly effective in reducing stress in a wide array of populations. This meta-analysis included 15 studies with over 1,200 participants from military and civilian backgrounds. Using rigorous meta-analytic methods, the study found a large effect size of 1.01 for TM compared to control groups. An effect size over 0.80 is considered a large effect that the person, their family, and their medical staff would likely notice and discuss.

Effective across multiple ethnicities and trauma types

TM was consistently effective for people of different ethnicities in the U.S., Japan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, South Africa, Israel, and Australia. It was effective for war veterans, female survivors of domestic violence, war refugees, earthquake-tsunami victims, healthcare workers during the COVID pandemic, college students living with racial violence, male and female prison inmates, and nurses traumatized during the COVID-19 pandemic. In every study, TM reduced PTSD symptoms by 10 or more points on the standard PTSD Checklist (PCL), a threshold considered clinically meaningful. You can view the paper and download a free PDF at Medicina 2025; 61(4):659.

The new study validates previous research.

A previous paper, published this past December, compared 61 studies that used some form of meditation for treating PTSD. The average reduction in PTSD symptoms from pretest to posttest was moderate (effect size = 0.67). Separate tests found TM treatment had a large effect (effect size = 1.13), which was significantly greater than different forms of mindfulness and other forms of meditation, Medicina 2024; 60(12):2050.

These findings are consistent with a third recent study involving effects on stress-related gene expression, EEG measures of cognitive function, and persistent levels of cortisol by Wenuganen, Walton and colleagues. Biomolecules 2025. This study provides evidence for stress-related molecular mechanisms that may underlie reductions in PTSD, cardiometabolic diseases, and aging-related declines.

Faster PTSD Reduction in TM Than in Control Groups

All fifteen studies in the most recent paper showed that in every case TM worked more rapidly than the control procedure. The four charts shown in this figure used repeated measures, illustrating that TM (dotted lines) worked more rapidly than the control groups (solid lines). For military personnel, (Nidich et al., 2018), TM worked more rapidly than Health Education (HE), or Prolonged Exposure therapy (PE), a first-line therapy used by the U.S.A. Veterans Administration. For traumatized South African college students who had lived during war and racial discrimination (Bandy et al., 2019), TM worked more rapidly than controls who received only their usual college curriculum, NT = No Treatment. For clinical nurses during COVID (Bonamer et al., 2024) TM worked more rapidly than Wait List Controls (WLC) who agreed to wait until after the experiment to learn TM. For survivors of domestic violence (battered women, Leach and Lorenzon, 2023) TM worked faster than Support Group therapy. PTSD patients in every population noticed obvious reductions in PTSD symptoms, within one month of practicing TM. Those who practiced it according to the recommended twice a day schedule got the best results.

“I’ve served in war zones and seen how PTSD ravages lives long after the battle ends,” said Colonel (Ret.) Brian Rees, M.D., co-author and former U.S. Army Medical Corps officer. “This research shows TM offers a safe, scalable, and profoundly effective solution—often with results in just a few weeks.”

Another co-author, Dr. Vernon Barnes said: "I have 13 years of experience teaching TM in an army hospital to over 300 active-duty soldiers with PTSD and traumatic brain injury issues. These soldiers have combat-related PTSD laid on top of years of pre-existing trauma starting in childhood. That is a reason their PTSD is so intense. That population needs evidence-based, behavioral-health therapy, and then TM as an adjunctive therapy to promote healing and cement the gains. The experience of providers I have worked with is that patients who get TM after therapy recover faster and more completely than those who do not." Dr. Barnes is Faculty Emeritus of Georgia Prevention Institute, Department of Medicine, Augusta University, Augusta, GA.

Lead author Dr. David Orme-Johnson, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Psychology of Maharishi International University, taught TM to 2,000 survivors of the Armenian earthquake of 1989-1990. He said: “Everyone in the country either had a relative or friend die in the earthquake or had participated in digging bodies out of the rubble. I saw people burst into tears of relief during their very first meditation. One man I taught was so traumatized from war and then the earthquake that he did not speak. I did not know he was mute because his brother brought him in and spoke for him.  I taught him TM the usual way, which involves speaking, and when the brother came in and asked how he did, and I said fine, he was astonished. When he told me his brother had been mute, I was the astonished one. TM became so popular in Yerevan that people from every level of society, from the top physicists and artists to the cleaning ladies, sought us out to learn. Our group of ten TM teachers taught 15,000 people in six months, for free, I might add.”

The authors note the unique value of TM as a non-trauma-focused, non-pharmacological option. Unlike treatments that require re-experiencing traumatic events, TM offers a gentler approach that helps settle the nervous system without directly confronting traumatic memories. The authors conclude: “We recommend that large-scale, phase III trials be conducted to further establish TM’s role alongside or in place of existing treatments for PTSD”.

This study, Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Transcendental Meditation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, was co-authored by David W. Orme-Johnson, Ph.D., Vernon A. Barnes, Ph.D., Brian Rees, M.D., and Jean Tobin.

 

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