14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian researchers from the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine argue in a new study that practicing mindfulness meditation can reduce the severity of certain symptoms associated with cancer in teens. The findings are very important because they highlight one possible avenue of fighting against depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders, factors that often accompany a cancer diagnostic.
The investigation was conducted on a small group of 13 teens, who were asked to fill out a questionnaire covering their sleep patterns, anxiety and depression level, positive or negative moods, and their overall quality of life. The group was then split up into two smaller groups, one of which received mindfulness meditation training around 90 minutes per week, for eight weeks.
After two months, all participants had to retake the questionnaire, and researchers looked at how anxiety and uncertainty levels changed in the two groups in the meantime. “We found that teenagers [who] participated in the mindfulness group had lower scores in depression after our eight sessions,” explains Dr. Catherine Malboeuf-Hurtubise, from the UM Department of Psychology.
“Girls from the mindfulness group reported sleeping better. We also noticed that they developed mindfulness skills to a greater extent than boys during the sessions,” adds the expert, quoted by PsychCentral. The team admits however that more studies are needed on this issue, since the correlation between meditation and the mood improvements was not very strong.