Meditation and the prevention of alcohol abuse.
The authors surveyed the frequency of alcohol use in individuals identified as practitioners of Transcendental Meditation (N equals 126) and a matched control group (N equals 90). No control subjects reported discontinuation of beer and wine use; 40 percent of subjects who had meditated for more than 2 years reported discontinuation within the first 6 months. After 25-39 months of meditation, this figure increased to 60 percent. In addition, 54 percent of this group, versus 1 percent of the control group, had stopped drinking hard liquor. The authors suggest that meditation could be an effective preventive tool in the area of alcohol abuse.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001143:Arousal; D002188:Cannabis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D008517:Phytotherapy; D012063:Relaxation; D012737:Sex Factors; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D013850:Thinking