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A black adult female with eyes closed is in a meditation pose in a room surrounded by other adults in the same activity.

Adults with anxiety disorders can experience comparable relief from either meditation or a commonly prescribed medication, according to findings from a PCORI-funded study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

For the study, lead researcher Elizabeth Hoge, MD, at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC), and her team compared how patients fared if they either took the drug escitalopram or participated in weekly mindfulness meditation classes with a trained instructor for eight weeks. More than 200 patients in Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, DC, participated in the study.

At the end of the eight weeks, both groups reported about a 20 percent reduction in the severity of their symptoms. The findings of the study provide people living with anxiety disorders information that can help them choose among options to find relief.

View a visual abstract of the findings. These findings were widely reported in national media and included comments from Hoge. Learn more below.

Media Mentions


Posted: November 14, 2022

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