Meditate don't medicate: How medical imaging evidence supports the role of meditation in the treatment of depression
Meditate don't medicate: How medical imaging evidence supports the role of meditation in the treatment of depression
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DOI：
10.1016/j.radi.2015.08.002
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发表时间：
2016-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Bridge, P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Annells, S.;Kho, K.;Bridge, P.
简介：抑郁症是一种使人衰弱的精神疾病，影响着很大一部分人口。目前对抑郁症的治疗包括抗抑郁药物治疗，这与副作用和复发风险增加有关。方法：通过系统的文献综述，确定医学影像研究在衡量冥想对抑郁的影响方面的价值。结果：医学影像研究成功地证明，冥想可以通过减少杏仁核的活动，增加海马体、前额叶皮质和其他与注意力和情绪自我调节相关的大脑区域的灰质体积和活性，来抵消或预防抑郁的生理原因。功能成像的最新进展使大脑内神经可塑性的可视化成为可能。这表明，对于冥想者来说，练习引起的改变可能是由于微观解剖过程，可能代表着激活的大脑区域内的功能能力增加。大脑生理学的这些变化与冥想过程中获得的技能(如自我调节、对负面信息的心理处理和放松技术)有关，可能会导致抑郁症的根治，从而防止复发。结论：本综述的结果表明，医学成像在证明冥想引起的大脑内生理变化方面发挥了重要作用，这些变化抵消了导致抑郁的因素。这些研究表明，冥想是抑郁症患者临床治疗的一种可行的药物替代方案。建议进行更严格的纵向成像研究，以加强对冥想的神经路径和机制的理解。(C)2015年放射技师学院。爱思唯尔有限公司出版。保留所有权利。
Introduction: Depression is a debilitating psychiatric disorder that affects a large proportion of the population. The current treatment for depression involves anti-depressant medication which is associated with side effects and a heightened risk of relapse.Methods: A systematic literature review was performed to determine the value of medical imaging studies in measuring the impact of meditation on depression.Results: Medical imaging studies have successfully demonstrated that meditation may counteract or prevent the physiological cause of depression by decreasing amygdala activity and increasing grey matter volume and activity of the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and other brain regions associated with attention and emotional self-regulation. Recent advances in functional imaging have enabled visualisation of neural plasticity within the brain. This has shown that for meditators, practice-induced alterations could be due to micro-anatomical processes that may represent an increased functional capacity within the brain regions activated. These changes within brain physiology in association with the skills gained during meditation such as self-regulation, mental processing of negative information and relaxation techniques could potentially lead to a permanent cure for depression and thus prevent relapse.Conclusions: The results of this review suggest that medical imaging has a valuable role to play in evidencing the physiological changes within the brain caused by meditation that counteract those that cause depression. These studies indicate that meditation is a viable alternative to medication for clinical treatment of patients with depression. More rigorous longitudinal imaging studies are proposed to enhance understanding of the neural pathways and mechanisms of meditation. (C) 2015 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.