Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:942-945
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
Meditation and the prevention of alcohol abuse
M Shafil, R Lavely and R Jaffe
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.
