Mindfulness training gave small to moderate gains in attention and some thinking skills.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The 111 trials included 9,538 people who had never meditated, aged about 4 to 81 (about 34 on average). About 58 in 100 were women, and the largest number of trials, 46, took place in the United States.

2. 02

   What they did

   Mindfulness courses taught people to focus on the present moment, with lessons and homework over at least two sessions. Other groups got no treatment, waited, or took another course, such as therapy.

3. 03

   What happened

   Compared with people who got no treatment or waited, the mindfulness courses improved most attention and thinking tests. People also rated their own focus higher. Against other courses, the gains were still there on eight measures. Thinking speed, word-finding, memory of past events, mistakes, and how quickly people answered executive tests showed no clear change.

What the review found

1. Helped

   People who did mindfulness training kept focus on a task better than people who got no treatment.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested

   Pooled analysis of 0 studies · vs people who got no treatment or were still waiting · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. Helped

   People who did mindfulness training handled mixed signals better than people who got no treatment.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested

   Pooled analysis of 0 studies · vs people who got no treatment or were still waiting · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. Helped

   People who did mindfulness training kept focus on tests better than other treatments did.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested

   Pooled analysis of 23 studies with 3,083 people · vs people in other active treatments · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

4. Helped

   People who did mindfulness training rated their own focus higher than other treatments did.

   • Action: Practise mindfulnesstested

   Pooled analysis of 28 studies with 4,278 people · vs people in other active treatments · they rated themselves · ⚠ the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source