Psychological Treatment of Essential Hypertension: A Controlled Comparison of Meditation and Meditation plus Biofeedback

Twenty-one hypertension patients who had been randomly assigned to eight one-hour sessions of either meditation training, meditation plus biofeedback-aided relaxation, or a nontreatment control group were studied. Statistically significant falls in systolic and diastolic blood pressure occurred after both training programs, although overall reductions in blood pressure were not significantly greater in either program than in the control group. Meditation plus biofeedback-aided relaxation produced falls in diastolic blood pressure earlier in the training program than did meditation alone. All patients practiced meditation regularly between training sessions, but the amount of practice did not correlate with the amount of blood pressure reduction after training.