Baer et al. (2019). Doing no harm in mindfulness-based programs: Conceptual issues and empirical findings. Clinical Psychology Reviews.
Schlosser et al. (2019). Unpleasant meditation-related experiences in regular meditators: Prevalence, predictors, and conceptual considerations. PLOS ONE 14(5): e0216643. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216643
Van Dam et al. (2018). Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(1), 36–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617709589
“… researchers and clinicians have to be put on guard, educated about, and encouraged to address the potential AEs stemming from mindfulness practices.
Research on the nature and scope of potential AEs should receive considerable further attention and government funding, due to the public’s rapidly increasing
involvement in practicing mindfulness.”
Love, S (2018). Meditation Is a Powerful Mental Tool—and For Some People It Goes Terribly Wrong.
“Willoughby Britton, the director of the clinical and affective neuroscience laboratory at Brown University, runs a support group for people […] people for whom meditation has caused a psychological and physical crisis. Each week, she gets more emails from people who are struggling, asking for her help. ‘I’m seeing a lot of casualties,’ she says.”
“More than 75 percent of research studies on meditation aren’t measuring or monitoring adverse effects, Britton tells me. “
“Needless to say, Britton feels wary about our growing tendency to dole out meditation like a generic multivitamin. ‘I don’t see that the programs or the apps or people who are teaching it are taking responsibility for these people,’ she says. ‘If they’re calling me, then they’re not getting the help they need from the people who are teaching them.’”
Lindahl JR, Fisher NE, Cooper DJ, Rosen RK, Britton WB (2017) .The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists. PLOS ONE 12(5): e0176239.
“By identifying a broader range of experiences associated with meditation, along with the factors that contribute to the presence and management of experiences reported as challenging, difficult, distressing or functionally impairing, this study aims to increase our understanding of the effects of contemplative practices and to provide resources for mediators, clinicians, meditation researchers, and meditation teachers.”