Meditation May Ease RA Distress

New research shows that meditation may help people cope
with rheumatoid arthritis.

In a new study, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients reported less
psychological distress after learning and practicing meditation for six months,
compared with RA patients who didn't get meditation training during that
time.

Meditation didn't cure RA or erase the joint disease's physical symptoms.
But it appeared to help the patients deal with those symptoms, according to the
researchers, who included the University of Maryland's Elizabeth Pradhan, PhD,
MPH.

The study appears in the journal Arthritis Care
&B Research.

Meditation Study

Pradhan and colleagues studied 63 adults with rheumatoid arthritis. All of
the patients continued to get rheumatology care throughout the study.

The researchers randomly split the patients into two groups. One group took
an eight-week class in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

The MBSR program -- developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, and colleagues at the
University of Massachusetts' medical school -- has been shown to reduce
psychological distress in patients with other conditions, but this was its
first test in RA patients.

Here's how Pradhan's team describes the program: "MBSR teaches
participants to notice and relate differently to thoughts and emotions, with a
sense of compassion for self and others. ...B By continually bringing the
mind back to the present moment, mindfulness meditation is thought to increase
clarity, calmness, and well-being."

Participants took MBSR classes for eight weeks and were asked to practice
meditation at home for 45 minutes per day, six days per week. The classes
included sitting meditation, walking meditation, and gentle yoga appropriate
for RA patients.

After their eight-week class ended, patients in the meditation group took
three classes over the next four months to refresh their mindfulness
skills.

For comparison, the other group of RA patients in Pradhan's study was
waitlisted for a free MBSR training program held after the study ended.

Meditation Perk

The RA patients got physical checkups, took blood tests, and completed
psychological surveys two months and six months after the study started.

At the two-month point, the groups reported similar reductions in
psychological distress. That may be partly because they weren't extremely
distressed to begin with, or because the patients who weren't in the meditation
group got a psychological boost from participating in the study, Pradhan's team
suggests.

At the end of the six-month study, those benefits continued only for
patients in the meditation group.

Those patients cut their psychological distress by 35% during the study.
That's the difference between being "extremely" distressed and being
"a little bit" distressed, the researchers write.

The study has some limits, including its small size. The patients who
participated may not be typical of all people with rheumatoid arthritis, note
Pradhan and colleagues.

Then again, there was no downside to mindfulness training as an addition to
conventional medical care.

"For doctors wishing to offer patients a complement to medical
management, mindfulness meditation may offer hope for improving psychological
distress and strengthening well-being in patients with RA," the researchers
conclude.

B

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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