Transcendental meditation linked to reduced burnout, anxiety in women healthcare workers

Editor's Note

Women healthcare professionals who practiced transcendental meditation (TM) for three months showed greater improvements in burnout, emotional exhaustion, anxiety, and insomnia than those who received usual treatment, according to a July 9 Healio article.

The report focuses on data presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference—namely, a secondary analysis of a single-center, open-label, randomized clinical trial conducted between November 2020 and August 2021. The study compared twice-daily 20-minute TM sessions with access to wellness resources among 80 healthcare professionals. This analysis focused on the subgroup of 66 women participants, including 34 in the TM group and 32 in the control group. The TM group received formal instruction prior to the study. Participants were evaluated using five validated instruments at baseline and at three months: the Maslach Burnout Index (MBI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISK-10).

At baseline, 30.3% of women met criteria for moderate to severe anxiety and 24.2% met criteria for moderate to severe depression, Healio reports. At three months, 9.1% of the TM group and 22.6% of the control group had moderate to severe anxiety symptoms. For depression, 12% of the TM group and 22.6% of the control group met the same threshold. The Healio article did not specify whether between-group differences in depression rates were statistically significant.

As detailed in the article, the TM group showed significantly greater improvements than the control group in the following outcomes:

• MBI total score: mean difference –7.03 (95% CI, –12.49 to –1.58; P = .012)
• MBI emotional exhaustion subscore: –5.93 (95% CI, –9.86 to –1.99; P = .003)
• GAD-7 anxiety score: –1.98 (95% CI, –3.8 to –0.16; P = .033)
• ISI insomnia score: –2.11 (95% CI, –4.16 to –0.07; P = .043)

Participants in the TM group had a mean age of 38.7 years and were 70.6% white, 17.6% Black, and 94.1% non-Hispanic, the outlet reports. The control group had a mean age of 40.4 years, with 78.1% white, 12.5% Black, and 93.8% non-Hispanic participants. The outlet quoted study author Selina Chang, who noted the high baseline levels of burnout and emphasized the need to support women in health care with strategies that target chronic stress. She also highlighted the potential for broader implementation and further research using diverse samples and flexible TM delivery formats.