Trial reportBrain, behavior, and immunity2013
A comparison of mindfulness-based stress reduction and an active control in modulation of neurogenic inflammation.
Trial report in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 121 papers, 13 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Pregnancy and Anxious Thoughts: The Role of the Immune and Endocrine Systems
Smartphone Stress Management Training for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Feasibility of a Mental-Health Intervention Based on Contemplative Sleep Practices
Who cites it
121 citing papers in PubMed, 13 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 311 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on inflammaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Biogerontology · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of mindfulness meditation on depression during pregnancy: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Inflammation and depression in young people: a systematic review and proposed inflammatory pathways.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Mindfulness-based programmes for mental health promotion in adults in nonclinical settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.PLoS medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Stress-Reducing Interventions on the Response to Challenges to the Immune System: A Meta-Analytic Review.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2019Pooled it
- Mindfulness Meditation for Primary Headache Pain: A Meta-Analysis.Chinese medical journal · 2018Pooled it
- Meditation and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2017Guideline
- Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on biomarkers in healthy and cancer populations: a systematic review.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2016Pooled it
- Effects of psychotropic drugs on inflammation: consequence or mediator of therapeutic effects in psychiatric treatment?Psychopharmacology · 2016Pooled it
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- Impacts of mindfulness-based interventions in people undergoing hemodialysis: a systematic review.Jornal brasileiro de nefrologiaPooled it
- Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Salivary Cortisol and α-amylase Level, Anxiety and Depression in Students: A Randomized and Parallel-Group Clinical Trial.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2025Trial
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction increases stimulated IL-6 production among lonely older adults: A randomized controlled trial.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Trial
- Mediational pathways of meditation and exercise on mental health and perceived stress: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of health psychology · 2020Trial
- An Internet-Based Psychological Intervention With a Serious Game to Improve Vitality, Psychological and Physical Condition, and Immune Function in Healthy Male Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Trial
- The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Depression, Cognition, and Immunity in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Feasibility Study.Clinical interventions in aging · 2020Trial
- A qualitative study of older adults' perspectives on initiating exercise and mindfulness practice.BMC geriatrics · 2019Trial
- Only vulnerable adults show change in chronic low-grade inflammation after contemplative mental training: evidence from a randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
61 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Psychological stress is a major provocative factor of symptoms in chronic inflammatory conditions. In recent years, interest in addressing stress responsivity through meditation training in health-related domains has increased astoundingly, despite a paucity of evidence that reported benefits are specific to meditation practice. We designed the present study to rigorously compare an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention to a well-matched active control intervention, the Health Enhancement Program (HEP) in ability to reduce psychological stress and experimentally-induced inflammation. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used to induce psychological stress and inflammation was produced using topical application of capsaicin cream to forearm skin. Immune and endocrine measures of inflammation and stress were collected both before and after MBSR training. Results show those randomized to MBSR and HEP training had comparable post-training stress-evoked cortisol responses, as well as equivalent reductions in self-reported psychological distress and physical symptoms. However, MBSR training resulted in a significantly smaller post-stress inflammatory response compared to HEP, despite equivalent levels of stress hormones. These results suggest behavioral interventions designed to reduce emotional reactivity may be of therapeutic benefit in chronic inflammatory conditions. Moreover, mindfulness practice, in particular, may be more efficacious in symptom relief than the well-being promoting activities cultivated in the HEP program.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.