MEDITATION IS GOOD FOr PSYCHIATRISTS’ MENTAL HEALTH

Meditation sessions are proving a hit for members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists at their Annual Meeting – with a growing number claiming they turn to the spiritual discipline to combat anxiety and burnout.  Meditation workshops, run by the College’s 2,000-strong spirituality special interest group, are overbooked. 

Its chair, Dr Sara Eagger, consultant psychiatrist at London’s St Charles Hospital, London, said her daily meditation practice was as important in her everyday work as her medical training.   “A strong spiritual practice really comes into its own when you are faced with a very distressed patient, while also coping with the pressures of working in teams under immense stress, and then having to spend hours filling in forms that make you feel that you are not trusted. Without meditation practice to keep a still space inside, I would be suffering burn-out.”

Dr Andrew Powell, the founding chair of the spirituality group, said: “There is concern within the profession about being trapped in a culture of measurement and box-ticking. The result is that it’s becoming ever more difficult to practice psychiatry, to contain the anxiety and concerns of our patients, to maintain a common humanity and avoid getting caught up in an ‘us and them’ mentality.”

“The National Institute for Mental Health in England is just the latest body to acknowledge the limitations of modern medicine by recommending that practitioners provide spiritual support alongside physical treatments, including medication,” said Dr Julia Head of Maudsley Hospital, who coordinates ‘recovery’ training programmes for 300 mental health practitioners in the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth. 

“Practitioners feel trapped in a culture where measuring clinical activity is the priority.  It takes them time to understand that in order to support their patients’ recovery, they need to feel valued themselves and to take time for their own nurture.’   

The meeting was also told that the evidence-base for the therapeutic value of meditation for a wide range of health problems was significantly stronger than most pharmaceutical products. A new meta-analysis of 823 randomly controlled trials of meditation, conducted by the US National Institute of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, showed the clinical benefits of meditation across a wide range of physical and emotional disorders. 

“If meditation was a drug, we’d all want shares in it,” said Dr Avdesh Sharma, past president of he Indian Psychitric Association. “It has a beneficial effect on most physical health problems and is very effective for mental health problems significantly reducing levels of depression and anxiety by improving relaxation, oxygenation of the brain, insomnia and energy levels.”

REFERENCE:

Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Imperial College, London, 1 – 4 July 2008

Comments

[Umer]

I am suffering from Scizo affective coupled with bipolar and obsession.Should I regulerly do meditation that includes visualization of high achievments ,ESP and law of attraction?(I am 32 years old guy and having this mental problems for a long time.I am taking risperidone and prozac.)