New Research Confirms Dramatic Benefits of TM
for ADHD and Student Life
TM and ADHD. In December 2008, a pilot study showing that Transcendental Meditation practice can serve as a safe, non-pharmaceutical aid for treating ADHD symptoms was published in the peer-reviewed online journal Current Issues in Education. The study documented a 53% reduction in anxiety and depression in middle-school students with ADHD and a 26% drop in ADHD symptoms after these students had been meditating for 10 minutes twice daily for three months. “The effect was much greater than we expected," said lead researcher Sarina J. Grosswald, a cognitive learning specialist. “The children also showed improvements in attention, working memory, organization, and behavior regulation.” The study was picked up by both Reuters and the American Academy of Academic Sciences and created worldwide publicity that is still continuing today.
American University Research. On February 24, 2009, the peer-reviewed International Journal of Psychophysiology published groundbreaking research on the impact of Transcendental Meditation in the lives of college students. Lead author Dr. Fred Travis of Maharishi International University and his colleagues at M.U.M. and at the Psychology Department of American University evaluated brain functioning, habituation to stressful stimuli, and sleepiness in 300 American University college students who had learned TM. After 10 weeks’ practice, the initial student TM group showed improved brain integration, reduced sleepiness, and faster habituation rates; after the control group learned TM and both groups had been practicing the technique, brain integration was higher and habituation rates faster for both groups, as compared with earlier scores. The study authors concluded that Transcendental Meditation “may be an effective non-medicinal tool for students to buffer themselves against the intense stresses of college life.”
This report has also received extensive coverage in the national and international press, thanks to the efforts of the media team. Taken together, these two articles have been viewed over 14,000 times in the last four months on the EurekaAlert! website, with more than 2,100 visits in April 2009 alone.
In May 2009, a national conference on “Meditation: New Help for Stressed-Out Kids” summarized these and other research findings confirming that Transcendental Meditation can help increase academic achievement and reduce ADHD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. To view a replay of this important conference, click here.