Does Meditation Work? What the Evidence Can and Cannot Say

The honest answer to "does meditation work?" is: for some things, modestly, and for others we do not yet know. "Meditation" covers many practices and "work" depends on the goal, so this page looks at specific outcomes. It is information only and does not replace care from a health professional. If you are in a mental-health crisis in the US, call or text 988, or call 911 for an emergency.

What the larger reviews found

A review of 47 randomized trials (3,515 people) that all used active control groups found moderate evidence of better anxiety, depression and pain after mindfulness programs. [2] Effects were small to moderate, and the authors found low evidence for stress and quality of life. [2] For sleep, positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits and weight, they found low evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence. [2]

A later review of 142 groups of people with psychiatric diagnoses (12,005 participants) found mindfulness-based programs did better than no treatment and about the same as established treatments. [3] The most consistent evidence was for depression, pain conditions, smoking and addictive disorders. [3]

1. Anxiety and depression

   Promising but limited

   Better than no treatment in trials; about equal to established treatments in one large review [3]

2. Chronic pain

   Promising but limited

   Moderate evidence of small improvement in an older review [2]

3. Stress in healthy adults

   Mixed

   Improvement versus no intervention; mostly not clear versus active comparison groups [4]

4. Sleep

   Insufficient evidence

   Low or insufficient evidence in that older review [2]

5. Attention, weight, substance use

   Insufficient evidence

   Low or insufficient evidence in that review [2]

The comparison group matters

A program that beats a waitlist may only be beating "doing nothing". In a review of 136 trials in non-clinical settings, mindfulness programs improved anxiety, depression and distress compared with no intervention. [4] Against general active comparison groups, only depression improved with statistical significance, and there was no significant evidence of beating specific active treatments. [4] The authors rated confidence as moderate to very low, mainly because of inconsistent results and high risk of bias in many trials. [4]

In one head-to-head trial of 208 adults with anxiety disorders, an 8-week MBSR course was noninferior to the antidepressant escitalopram on a clinician-rated scale. [5] Side effects were reported by 15.4% of the MBSR group and 78.6% of the escitalopram group. [5] This was a single trial and did not include a no-treatment group, so it does not show that mindfulness replaces medicine. See meditation compared with medication and therapy for the fuller picture.

Where the evidence is weaker

• Blinding is hard. Nobody can be "blinded" to whether they are meditating, which makes expectation a real issue. [6]
• Positive results may be over-reported. In one analysis, 87% of 124 published mindfulness trials reported a positive outcome, about 1.6 times more than expected from the average effect size. [7]
• Brain findings are not health findings. A change on a scan is not the same as feeling better. See meditation and the brain.
• Harms are under-studied. NCCIH says few studies have looked for harm, so definite safety statements are not possible. [1]

More on these limits: quality and bias in meditation research and meta-analyses of mindfulness trials.

Where to go next

For specific conditions see stress, sleep and anxiety and pain, attention and depression relapse. For a general overview, see mindfulness and meditation for stress.