Research on the Benefits of Mindfulness
Davidson, Richard, et al. Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine July/August, 65 no. 4: 564-570. 2003.
Holzel, Carmody, et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2011; 191.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon, et al. The clinical use of mindfulness meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 8 (2): 163-189. 1984. Three-year follow-up of a meditation-based program for the self-regulation of chronic pain: treatment outcomes and compliance. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 2: 159-173. 1987.
Kerr, Catherine, et al. Mindfulness starts with the body: somatosensory attention and top-down modulation of cortical alpha rhythms in mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13. 2013.
Killingsworth, Mathew A. Gilbert, Daniel T. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind, Science, VOL 330, 12 November 2010, www.sciencemag.org.
Marano, Hara Estroff. Our Brain’s Negative Bias, Psychology Today, June 20, 2003.
McCracken, Lance, et al. Acceptance-based treatment for persons with complex, long-standing chronic pain: a preliminary analysis of treatment outcome in comparison to a waiting phase. Behavior Research and Therapy 43: 1335–1346. 2005.
Mrazek, Michael D., et al. Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering, Journal of Psychological Science, July 16, 2012.
Pickut, Barbara, et al. Mindfulness based intervention in Parkinson’s disease leads to structural brain changes on MRI: A randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, Volume 115, Issue 12, December 2013, Pages 2419-2425
Praissman, Sharon Mindfulness-based stress reduction: A literature review and clinician’s guide. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 20: 212–216. 2008.
Shapiro, Shauna, et al. Teaching self-care to caregivers: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training, http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/tep/1/2/105/
Whitebird, RR, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for family caregivers: a randomized controlled trial. Gerontologist. 2013 Aug;53(4):676-86. doi: 10.1093/geront/gns126. Epub 2012 Oct 15.
Yi-Yung, Tang, et al. Mechanisms of white matter changes induced by meditation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 26;109(26):10570-4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1207817109. Epub 2012 Jun 11.
Zeiden, Johnson, et al. Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training, consciousness and cognition, 19(2): 597-605, June 2010.
Research on Mindfulness and Parkinson's Disease
In 2013, Dr. Barbara Pickut was the lead author of a study published in Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, Mindfulness based intervention in Parkinson’s disease leads to structural brain changes on MRI: A randomized controlled longitudinal trial. The study found an increase in gray matter density in the neural networks presumed to be associated with PD after an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention.
In a study on stress management and Parkinson's Disease published in 2021, those who practiced mindfulness noticed beneficial effects on both motor and non-motor symptoms, with 60.2% noticing improvement in depression and 64.7% noticing improvement in anxiety. Practicing mindfulness more often was associated with greater perceived improvement in symptoms.