Amid rising concerns over burnout in the health care workforce, a new randomized clinical trial evaluated whether 20 minutes of meditation twice daily could improve outcomes.
A clinical trial found that Transcendental Meditation (TM) reduced symptoms of burnout, anxiety, and insomnia among health care workers (HCWs) over 3 months . However, it did not significantly reduce acute psychological distress compared to standard wellness resources.
The study enrolled 80 patient-facing HCWs from a single academic medical center between November 2020 and August 2021. Participants were randomly assigned to a TM intervention or a control group that received usual wellness resources. The TM group received individualized instruction and practiced meditation twice daily for 20 minutes. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, one month, and three months using validated instruments.
The primary endpoint was change in acute psychological distress, measured by the Global Severity Index (GSI) of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18. At three months, the TM group showed a mean reduction of 5.6 points in GSI scores compared with 3.8 points in the control group. The between-group difference (–1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI] = –4.2 to 0.6) was not statistically significant (P= .13).
Several secondary outcomes showed significant improvements in the TM group. Emotional exhaustion, assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory, decreased by 8.0 points in the TM group compared with 2.6 points in controls (between-group difference, –5.4; 95% CI = –9.2 to –1.6; P = .006). Insomnia symptoms, measured by the Insomnia Severity Index, improved more in the TM group (–4.1 vs –1.9; between-group difference, –2.2; 95% CI = –4.4 to 0; P = .05). Anxiety symptoms, based on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale, decreased by 3.1 points in the TM group and 0.9 points in the control group (between-group difference, –2.2; 95% CI = –3.8 to –0.5; P = .01).
Participants had a mean age of 40 years, and 82.5% were women. Baseline assessments indicated high emotional exhaustion, subthreshold insomnia, mild depression, and low acute psychological distress. Only a small number of participants met the threshold for high distress, which may have limited the ability to detect significant changes in the primary outcome.
“TM significantly reduced chronic stress, particularly burnout, suggesting that TM could be an effective strategy to prevent or mitigate chronic stress, and potentially burnout, among HCWs,” Sangeeta P. Joshi, MD, of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, and the study’s first author.
Adherence in the TM group was high, with 92.7% of participants practicing at least once daily. Attrition was low; 78 of 80 participants completed the study.
No adverse events were reported. The authors used validated assessment tools, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Insomnia Severity Index, and GAD-7 scale.
The findings suggest that while TM may not significantly reduce acute distress, it may have benefits for chronic stress indicators in HCWs. The study highlights the need for further research with larger samples and longer follow-up to assess the long-term effectiveness of TM for stress mitigation in clinical workforces.
The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04632368) and was funded by the Marcus Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
Full disclosures can be found in the published study.
Source: JAMA Network Open