For last few decades, the western world paying attention to meditation and religious practices from the east. Mainly they are using mindfulness and related meditation techniques to tackle number of problems such as relieve chronic pain, reduce stress, increase productivity of workers, cure mental disorders, etc.
This drawn attention of scientists to develop methods to cure number of mental disorders and health problems. As a result thousands of research have been carried out and most of them showed positive results.
Researchers have been known about placebo effect for a long time, and number of research had already been carried out to find out about placebo effet.
A comparative study shows some overlaps in brain activity related to meditation and placebos.
Acta Neuropsychiatrica 2010: 22: 104–117
Of cause, meditation is not just believing about a treatment, but a practice which give rise to number of qualities and physical changes of the body.
Mindfulness Meditation is found to be useful in number of therapiesand treatments.
Mindfulness meditation has been reported to produce positive effects on psychological well-being that extend beyond the time the individual is formally meditating. Over the last three decades mindfulness meditation practices have been increasingly incorporated into psychotherapeutic programs, to take advantage of these benefits (cf. Baer, 2003; Grossman et al., 2004). A large body of research has established the efficacy of these mindfulness-based interventions in reducing symptoms of a number of disorders, including anxiety (Roemer et al., 2008), depression (Teasdale et al., 2000), substance abuse (Bowen et al., 2006), eating disorders (Tapper et al., 2009), and chronic pain (Grossman et al., 2007), as well as improving well-being and quality of life (e.g., Carmody and Baer, 2008).
(Reference)
Placebo effect: a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment.
A placebo is a medical treatment or procedure designed to deceive the participant of a clinical experiment. It does not contain any active ingredients but often still produces a physical effect on the individual.
Placebos also found to be have positive effects on disorders and diseases, and therefore, a drug is only approved when it produces a greater effect than a placebo (Reference).
Could there be any link between pacebo effect and meditation?
Could it be possible to enhance immunity and defense against diseases through meditation?
