Risks and adverse effects of meditation

• Applicant: Dr. Ulrich Ott
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 314155732

In meditation research, attention is directed primarily on positive health-outcomes. On the other hand, risks and adverse effects of meditation are hardly recognized. The ongoing project intends to answer the following questions using interviews and - based on that - a questionnaire survey: Which difficult, challenging, or unpleasant experiences are apparently triggered by regular practice of Buddhist or mindfulness-based meditation? How are these experiences interpreted by the subjects? Which actions are helpful in dealing with such experiences? Which factors, with regards to the person and/or meditation practice, encourage the occurrence of such experiences; what theory can explain their occurrence? How do people in charge of Buddhist meditation centers and providers of mindfulness-based methods try to prevent the occurrence of such experiences; what actions do those people in charge and providers take when such experiences occur, and which actions are helpful in dealing with such experiences? How do executives in the health system deal with such experiences? How do patients with such experiences see their course of treatment? Since this is early basic research, qualitative methods are applied in the first phase of the project (sampling, interviews, and analysis according to the grounded theory method). In the second phase of the project, a questionnaire will be developed, distributed and analyzed, in order to test whether the qualitative findings are corroborated by the quantitative data. The analysis of correlations in a larger sample (one assessment) provides the basis for a prospective study with participants of mindfulness-based interventions (longitudinal assessment at four points in time). Necessary methodological adjustments in the first phase of the project lead to considerable additional work and required time. The by 12 months extended duration is required for (a) an inductive coding of the collected interview data in order to allow a conclusive replication attempt; (b) collecting and analyzing an extended sample in order to allow theoretical saturation; (c) allowing the additional administration and analysis of a participant attributes form.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants