based Practice Center
(EPC) under contract
to the Agency for
Healthcare Research
and Quality (AHRQ)
stated that “firm conclusions on the effects
of meditation practices
in healthcare cannot
be drawn based on the
available evidence”. As
acknowledged by the
authors, this negative
finding results from
the low quality of the
included studies and
the diversity of types
of meditation studied,
methodology used and
enrolled patient populations [9].
This example highlights a number of
important
issues.
Firstly, there is a clear
need to standardise
the methodology used
when studying meditation and to, wherever possible, conduct
randomised controlled
trials.
Furthermore,
researchers
studying meditation should
strive to adhere to
the CONSORT guide16
lines for trial reporting to ensure that their
data are viewed in the
most favourable light.
Secondly, it remains
questionable whether
studies of meditation
should be forced to
meet the rigorous standards devised for clinical trials of investigational drugs. Meditation
is not a substitute for
conventional treatment
approaches; it is an
alternative therapy that
can, in some patients,
provide added benefit. Whereas failure
of an antihypertensive
could lead to considerable patient morbidity
and mortality, failure of
meditation to improve
a patient’s clinical situation has few drawbacks.
The value of meditation as a healthcare
intervention is perhaps
best illustrated by the
fact that, at an increasing number of medical