Summary overview of methods and results.
Background
Chronic symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) vary greatly and are difficult to treat; we investigate the impact of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness‐based interventions on this treatment group.
Method
Search included four databases, allowing studies of any design containing pre/post outcomes for meditation, yoga, or mindfulness‐based interventions in people suffering from brain injury acquired by mechanical force. Analyses used robust variance estimation to assess overall effects and random‐effects models for selected outcomes; we evaluated both between‐ and within‐group changes.
Results
Twenty studies (N = 539) were included. Results revealed significant improvement of overall symptoms compared to controls (d = 0.41; 95% CI [0.04, 0.77]; τ
2 = 0.06), with significant within‐group improvements in mental health (d = 0.39), physical health (d = 0.39), cognitive performance (d = 0.24), quality of life (d = 0.39), and self‐related processing (d = 0.38). Symptoms showing greatest improvement were fatigue (d = 0.96) and depression (d = 0.40). Findings were homogeneous across studies. Study quality concerns include lack of randomisation, blinding, and recording of adverse events.
Conclusions
This first‐ever meta‐analysis on meditation, yoga, and mindfulness‐based interventions for chronic symptoms of mTBI offers hope but highlights the need for rigorous new trials to advance clinical applications and to explore mechanistic pathways.