Effect of anapanasati meditation on verbal aggression: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Aggression is increasing in society, leading to health hazards. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of anapanasati meditation on verbal aggression in healthy individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 140 participants were screened and 90 participants were randomly allocated to experimental and control groups, with 45 participants in each group. The Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (VAS) was used to assess the verbal aggression score, and anapanasati meditation was given as an intervention. The experimental group practiced anapanasati meditation every day for 6 months, and the control group did not receive any intervention. RESULTS: The experimental group showed a significant reduction in VAS (p < 0.01) score after the intervention, whereas the reduction was not significant in the control group. CONCLUSION: This study showed that after a 6-month intervention, verbal aggression decreased significantly in the experimental group compared with the control group.

Effect of anapanasati meditation on anxiety: a randomized control trial.

BACKGROUND: Meditation has shown positive results in improving the psychological disorders such as anxiety. There is a need to study the therapeutic benefits of Anapanasati meditation, a mindfulness meditation technique. PURPOSE: The study aims at investigating the effect of Anapanasati meditation on individuals with moderate anxiety. METHODS: A total of 112 participants who were willing to participate in the study were recruited for the study. Anapanasati meditation was used as an intervention. The participants were divided into two groups experiment and control groups. Experiment group had 56 persons performing Anapanasati meditation and Control group had 56 persons not performing any type of meditation. The experiment group practiced one hour of Anapanasati meditation daily under the supervision of experts for six months and continued their daily routine and control group was not given any intervention, but they continued their daily routine. State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is used to assess the anxiety level. RESULTS: The STAI score before and after Anapanasati meditation was analysed for both experiment and control groups using Paired Samples T test. The experiment group has shown significant reduction in the STAI (P < 0.05) score after the intervention whereas in the control group the reduction in STAI score was not significant. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that after six months of intervention, the subjects with moderate anxiety who practiced Anapanasati meditation had a significant decrease in their STAI score and the control group has not shown significant change in the STAI score.