Effect of meditation on neurophysiological changes in stress mediated depression. Author: Kasala ER1, Bodduluru LN2, Maneti Y2, Thipparaboina R3. Affiliation: 1Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Bhangagarh, Guwahati 781032, Assam, India. Electronic address: ishreddy4@gmail.com. 2Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Bhangagarh, Guwahati 781032, Assam, India. 3Department of Pharmaceutics, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Balanagar, Hyderabad 500037, Andhra Pradesh, India. Conference/Journal: Complement Ther Clin Pract. Date published: 2014 Feb Other: Volume ID: 20 , Issue ID: 1 , Pages: 74-80 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2013.10.001 , Word Count: 132 Meditation is a complex mental practice involving changes in sensory perception, cognition, hormonal and autonomic activity. It is widely used in psychological and medical practices for stress management as well as stress mediated mental disorders like depression. A growing body of literature has shown that meditation has profound effects on numerous physiological systems that are involved in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). Although meditation-based interventions have been associated with improvement in depressive symptoms and prevention of relapse, the physiological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of meditation are not clearly defined and even paradoxical. This paper reviews many of the physiological abnormalities found in cytokine & stress mediated depression and the reversal of these anomalies by different meditation techniques. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. KEYWORDS: Cytokines, Depression, Meditation, Stress and neurophysiology PMID: 24439650