Mantram Therapy Found to Benefit Veterans With PTSD

A mindfulness-based therapy in which individuals learn to repeat personalized mantras to relax their thoughts appears to be more effective at reducing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms than a problem-solving psychotherapy known as present-centered therapy, reports astudy inAJP in Advance.Mantram therapy is based on the premise that silently repeating a personally meaningful word or phrase (mantra) promotes relaxation, increases emotional regulation, and reduces stress. Present-centered therapy is a psychotherapy that focuses patients on the present to help them actively target daily challenges related to their past trauma and PTSD symptoms.“Mantram therapy may be a valuable addition to current PTSD treatments because it incorporates some components of evidence-based treatments, yet without the trauma focus that can deter some clients,” wrote Jill Bormann, Ph.D., R.N., of the University of San Diego and colleagues.Previous uncontrolled studies of veterans have suggested that mantram therapy can reduce PTSD symptom severity, help veterans manage sleep disturbances, and more. For the current study, Bormann and colleagues compared PTSD outcomes in veterans who were randomly assigned to either mantram therapy or present-centered therapy. A total of 173 veterans from two Veterans Affairs outpatient clinics diagnosed with military-related PTSD were assigned to receive eight individual weekly one-hour sessions of either mantram or present-centered therapy.The mantram ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ajp in advance insomnia Jill Bormann mantram therapy patient-centered therapy psychotherapy PTSD veterans Source Type: research