Mantra meditation for mental health in the general population: A systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Meditation has attracted increased attention in the literature as a non-pharmacological strategy to foster positive mental health amongst the general population. This systematic review aims to summarise studies of mantra meditation (which includes Transcendental Meditation, TM®) to understand its potential value in fostering positive mental health and alleviating negative affectivity in non-clinical populations. Electronic databases were searched for English language, peer-reviewed empirical studies (published between 1970 and 2018) that related to mantra meditation, reported at least one outcome of mental health and utilised healthy, non-clinical populations. Studies were assessed for quality and risk of bias using the Quality Appraisal Tool for Quantitative Studies (QATQS). Data abstraction was facilitated by a tailored data extraction form. A total of 2171 records were identified, of which 37 were included in this review. Studies report on outcomes of anxiety, stress, depression, burnout, anger and psychological distress. 78% of studies utilised the TM programme. Findings indicate that mantra meditation interventions may have minimal to moderate beneficial effects on mental health in general populations. Over 90% of studies were considered to be of weak quality. There is some evidence that mantra meditation can improve mental health and negative affectivity in non-clinical populations, however poor study quality may hinder the extent to which one can be certain about the accuracy of these findings. Mantra meditation may be considered a useful adjunct to workplace wellbeing initiatives or educational programmes. Further studies of higher quality that incorporate cost-effectiveness analyses are warranted.
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Previous studies have substantiated the positive effects of mantra meditation on mental health and affectivity in healthy populations, although methodological flaws limit the validity of these findings.
“Previous studies have substantiated the positive effects of mantra meditation on mental health and affectivity in healthy populations, although methodological flaws limit the validity of these findings [74,75].”
From Embodied Cognition in Meditation, Yoga, and Ethics—An Experimental Single-Case Study on the Differential Effects of Four Mind–Body Treatments (2022) · cites this paper as [74]
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“Previous studies have substantiated the positive effects of mantra meditation on mental health and affectivity in healthy populations, although methodological flaws limit the validity of these findings [74,75].”
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“Recent systematic reviews of mindfulness-based (Kreplin et al. 2018), kindness-based (Galante et al. 2014), and mantra (Lynch et al. 2018) meditation intervention studies have largely found them to be of poor or weakmethodological quality.”
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“Both the production and perception of sound activities are connected with brain activities affecting distractions from external or internal sources [13].”
Aparicio‐Terrés, R., López‐Mochales, S., Díaz‐Andreu, M., & Escera, C. (2025) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.15403 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“92 However, the results from this review should be interpreted with caution due to limitations in the quality of the studies in this field.”
Effect of Gayatri Mantra on Health: A Narrative Review.Preprint
Sharma, N. K., & Soni, D. (2022) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/jzd8w · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Incorporating Islamic Principles into Therapy with Muslim American Clients
Shah, N., & Shah, M. (2021) · Cross-cultural advancements in positive psychology · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-72606-5_11 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Fergusson, L. C., Ortíz, J., & Bonshek, A. (2021) · Revista Innova Educación · doi:10.35622/j.rie.2022.01.002 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Effect of Meditation on Human Emotion Based on EEG Signal
Datar, D., & Khobragade, R. N. (2022) · Smart innovation, systems and technologies · doi:10.1007/978-981-16-3945-6_24 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Impact of Gayatri Sadhana Camp on Stress and Well-being Parameters: A Mixed-method Study
Sharma, N., Kumar, J., Patel, V., & Garg, R. D. (2024) · Journal of Applied Consciousness Studies · doi:10.4103/jacs.jacs_152_23 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Sikhism and Its Contribution to Well-Being
Bhutani, S., & Singh, K. K. (2023) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-99-2397-7_10 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Corney, R. C., Nevill, R. E. A., & Mazurek, M. O. (2023) · Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s41252-023-00373-y · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Mantra meditation has also been found to improve emotion regulation in individuals experiencing high stress, such as emergency department staff (Lynch et al., 2018b).”
Impacts of the second wave of Covid-19 in Brazil: a cross-sectional study with nursing students
Carneiro, A. L. B., Ramos, S. C. D. S., dos Santos, J. N., Alves, L. B., da Silva, L. A., Costa, C. B. A., & Ribeiro, O. C. (2022) · Research Society and Development · doi:10.33448/rsd-v11i9.31713 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“…and Yoga, for example, relieve stress and have beneficial effects on reducing anxious and depressive symptoms, decreasing negative affect and increasing positive affect, decreasing stress increasing life satisfaction and vitality (de Oliveira et al., 2020; Flett et al., 2019; Lynch et al., 2018).”
BackgroundRaghuwanshi, N., Keswani, J., Sharma, H., Tewani, G. R., & Nair, P. M. K. (2022) · Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health · doi:10.1016/j.cegh.2022.101081 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Veličković, K., Johnsson, P., Månsson, J., & Lundberg, T. (2024) · SAGE Open · doi:10.1177/21582440241292710 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Physical activity and meditation have previously been linked with both mental health (Lynch et al., 2018; Paluska & Schwenk, 2000) and physical health (Warburton et al., 2006).”
Chants across seven traditions share acoustic traits that enhance subjective relaxation
Canessa-Pollard, V., Anikin, A., & Reby, D. (2025) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2506480122 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Nonclinical popu lations, including practitioners of Transcendental Meditation ( 15 ) and “OM” chanting ( 16 ), have also reported enhanced well - being through chanting practices.”
“I Plug the Service into Planning Center”: Contemporary Evangelical Worship as Digital Religion
Ward, M. (2025) · Journal of Media and Religion · doi:10.1080/15348423.2025.2593691 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“In fact, “mantram repetition” in meditation – and contemporary worship has become a form of meditation – is a recognized therapy for promoting mental health (Lynch et al., 2018).”
Neural Correlates of Chanting: A Systematic Review
Perry, G., Wolff, L., Powers, N., Thompson, W. F., & Baumann, O. (2025) · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Cognitive Science · doi:10.1002/wcs.70018 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Bhardwaj, P., Ahuja, N., Malik, P., Sethi, D., Singh, A., & Pathania, M. (2024) · IntechOpen eBooks · doi:10.5772/intechopen.1006971 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
VR-Based Mantra Meditation for Mental Wellness
Garg, A., Kumar, A., Garg, S., Behera, L., & Dutt, V. (2024) · Conference proceedings/Conference proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics · doi:10.1109/smc54092.2024.10831844 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“"mantra" is a sound, word, or phrase chanted silently or vocally during a meditation session (Lynch et al., 2018).”
Williams, E. G., Ratchford, J. L., Pawl, T., Balkaya‐Ince, M., & Schnitker, S. A. (2024) · International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology · doi:10.1007/s41042-024-00190-1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Concentrative meditation on phrases, a practice in which a word or phrase is repeated as meditators passively focus attention away from pro-truding thoughts (Lynch et al., 2018), is conducive to virtue building and experimental manipulation.”
Yoga - Meditation and Positive PsychologyPreprint
Agrawal, J. (2022) · doi:10.31231/osf.io/pz7gd · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Human Mental Health Investigation in Internet Era
Joshi, A., Rauthan, M. M. S., & Verma, R. (2023) · International Conference on Innovative Sustainable Computational Technologies (CISCT) · doi:10.1109/cisct57197.2023.10351286 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“There are many distinct kinds of meditation practices, such as based on transcendence, loving-kindness meditation, and mindfulness meditation [18].”
BackgroundThe impact of mind–body therapies on the mental health of women victims of violence: A meta-analysis
Koroglu, S., & Durat, G. (2024) · Archives of Women s Mental Health · doi:10.1007/s00737-024-01484-8 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Toward Anxiety-Reducing Pocket Robots for Children
Frederiksen, M. R., Støy, K., & Matarić, M. J. (2024) · International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR) · doi:10.1109/ur61395.2024.10597525 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“CBT coping strategies include changing the focus of attention, such as using distraction imagery associated with something positive, listening to music, and repeating a mantra with a positive association [8]–[10].”
BackgroundNew Directions in Mantra Studies: Exploring the Emergence of Mantra Repetition
Haas, D. A. (2025) · AЯGOS · doi:10.26034/fr.argos.2025.8033 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“6 Due to its stress-reducing properties, quiet or silent MR is today advertised as an intervention to improve mental health (Lynch et al. 2018; Álvarez-Pérez et al. 2022), with the religious or doctrinal aspects of mantras often fading into the background altogether.”
Perry, G., Sunjo, J., Abass, F., Wolff, L., & Thompson, W. F. (2025) · Music & Science · doi:10.1177/20592043251372321 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Chanting can be practiced as a group, individually, and vocally with music or without, but it always involves mental or vocal repetition of sounds, phrases, or speci fi c syllables, such as “ Om, ” (Beck, 2019; Lynch et al., 2018; Perry & Polito, 2021).”
Malviya, S., Zupan, B., & Meredith, P. J. (2025) · Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health · doi:10.1080/19349637.2025.2559602 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“…the mental health benefits of sensorimotor religious/spiritual practices were conducted in non-religious settings (e.g., Bidgoli et al., 2016; Hendriks et al., 2017; Lynch et al., 2018) and did not consider the potential ethical issues of using religious/ spiritual practices in a secular setting.”
Sharma, N., Kumar, J., Garg, R. D., Pandey, R., Sharma, U. S., & Soni, D. (2024) · Ancient Science of Life · doi:10.4103/asl.asl_59_24 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Bhoot, A., Chowdhury, A. B., Shah, H., & Vaishnav, B. S. (2025) · Annals of Neurosciences · doi:10.1177/09727531251390261 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Superstitious Beliefs and Behaviours
Crossman, J. (2024) · Palgrave studies in workplace spirituality and fulfillment · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-59020-7_5 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
The Effect of Taizé Prayer on Stress and Stress Resilience of Young Adults in Nonclinical Settings
Suryanto, Y. I., Agustiningsih, D., & Sofro, Z. M. (2024) · Pastoral Psychology · doi:10.1007/s11089-024-01144-9 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Meditation with mantras (transcendental meditation, OM chanting, Ben-son’s relaxation response, and Japa yoga) can increase resilience (Amin et al., 2016; Gao et al., 2017; Lynch et al., 2018).”
Malviya, S., Meredith, P. J., & Zupan, B. (2025) · Mental Health Religion & Culture · doi:10.1080/13674676.2025.2544133 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Many studies have found that, while originally developed for religious/spiritual purposes, sensorimotor religious/spiritual practices can have positive e ff ects on mental health and well-being (Brinsley et al., 2020; Lynch et al., 2018; Malviya et al., 2022a).”
InfluentialThe Beauty of Mantra Chanting: Mental Health, Physical Wellness, and Bliss
Mendiratta, A., & Yadav, S. S. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-32257-0_148-1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Covid19, Mucociliary Clearance And Mechanisms of Beneficial Effects of Various Yoga Practices
Patel, J. A., Mandlik, V. V., & Mandlik, G. V. (2021) · International Research Journal of Ayurveda & Yoga · doi:10.47223/irjay.2021.4414
“Thus, mantra chanting has been reported to have beneficial effects in depression, anxiety, stress and cognition([44]); and improves mental health and negative affectivity([45,46]).”
BackgroundHand Lettering Effects on Self-Compassion
Gomez, C. M. (2021)
Integrative Approaches to Psychotherapy: Insights from Cultural and Spiritual Psychology
Thapa, K., & Ghildyal, P. (2022) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-16-9565-0_10
Fostering Resilience and Well-Being Among Pre-Health Students
Frame, L. A., Dyer, K. A., Powell, C. A., Dawson, D., Warren, A., Corr, P. G., & Siglin, M. (2022) · Advances in medical education, research, and ethics (AMERE) book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-6684-5969-0.ch007
Resmy Raj, A., Abhilash, M., Gawande, C. M., & Kulkarni, J. (2022) · International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health · doi:10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20222222
Meditation, Personality, and Workplace Stress
Waters, A., & Shanock, L. R. (2022) · UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research Journal · doi:10.55370/urj.v2i1.1424
“Two key benefits of mantra meditation use are better management of individual emotions and unwanted thoughts (Lynch et al., 2018).”
BackgroundA Paradigm Shift in Public Health: Yoga and Meditation for Prevention
Dragomir, M. (2023) · Dialogo · doi:10.51917/dialogo.2023.9.2.9
-, C. T. P., -, D. I. M. A. W. S., & -, A. A. (2024) · International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research · doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i04.25606
Cieśla, M. M., Cieśla, P., Żok, A., Woźniak, N., Wojtyła-Buciora, P., & Mojs, E. H. (2023) · Biuletyn Głównej Biblioteki Lekarskiej · doi:10.2478/bgbl-2023-0033
Agrawal, S., & Bharti, T. (2025) · Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium · doi:10.1109/sieds65500.2025.11021153
“IBMT, Guided Meditation (GM), and Mantra-Based Meditation (MBM) rely on physical cues, verbal prompts, or rhythmic repetition [10][11] thereby sustaining mental representations by directing awareness to external stimuli.”
Swami, S. K., & Dhopeshwarkar, M. (2025) · International Journal of Advanced Research in Science Communication and Technology · doi:10.48175/ijarsct-28490
Effect of Gayatri Mantra Practices on Health: A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis
Sharma, N., Soni, D., Kumar, J., & Garg, R. D. (2025) · Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry · doi:10.4103/ijsp.ijsp_133_24 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Monciino, A., & Berghmans, C. (2025) · HEGEL - HEpato-GastroEntérologie Libérale · doi:10.3917/heg.153.0041
The Effects of Mantra Intervention on State Anxiety and 100-M Sprint Performance in Student Athletes
Wang, Y. J., Adnan, Y., & Khong, T. K. (2025) · Lecture notes in bioengineering · doi:10.1007/978-981-96-8757-2_13
Neurophysiological Effects of Gayatri Mantra Meditation on Emotional Processing: An EEG-ERP Study
Sharma, N., Soni, D., Jain, M., Kumar, J., & Garg, R. (2025) · Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback · doi:10.1007/s10484-025-09753-7
“It involves the rhythmic repetition of sacred words or phrases often in Sanskrit to achieve greater awareness (Lynch et al., 2018; Parthasarathi, 2020) and has been reported to be associated with improved mental health and stress reduction (Álvarez-Pérez et al., 2022; Lynch et al., 2018; Tseng,…”
Beauty of Mantra Chanting, The: Mental Health, Physical Wellness, and Bliss
Mendiratta, A., & Yadav, S. P. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-76750-0_148
Li, A., Rodriguez‐Larios, J., Zhang, M., Liu, T., Cohen, B. H., & Ravishankar, S. (2026) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.64898/2026.02.26.707862
“The instructions for Japa meditation are fundamentally different from TM (Travis and Parim, 2017; Mahon et al., 2020; Lynch et al., 2018); the silent form of Japa emphasizes sustaining one’s attention on the mantra, keeping it salient in one’s awareness, thus making it a true form of FA meditation…”
Forner, R. A. S., Carvalho, F. M., Ferreira, E. E. A., & Behrens, J. H. (2026) · Journal of Foodservice Business Research · doi:10.1080/15378020.2026.2639453
Ritual Recitation as a Mind-Body Practice for Trauma Recovery
Dutta, A., & Tyagi, K. (2026) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-3521-6.ch011
Saha, S., Singh, M. K., Tiwari, U., Prasad, B., Choudhary, P. K., & Astuti, Y. (2026) · Pedagogy of Physical Culture and Sports · doi:10.15561/26649837.2026.0205
“The observed psychological and physiological changes associated with MSRT practice are broadly consistent with findings reported in previous studies examining yoga-based relaxation and sound-oriented interventions [26, 27, 28, 29].”
Mantra Meditation for Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysisPreprint
Biurra, Y. C., Naude, C., Biurra, Z. C., & Thompson, A. (2026) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-9536601/v1
A Survey-Based Study During COVID Shows That Lifestyle Factors Correlate with Mental Health
Thakral, S., Rao, A. R., Mishra, S., Mishra, A., Bentur, S. A., & Garg, R. D. (2026) · Studies in Rhythm Engineering · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-21704-2_7
How Chanting Enhances Well-Being: The Roles of Vocalization, Repetition, and Concentration
Cadieux, S., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2026) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-026-02951-2
Archana, B., Varadarajan, S., Mathangi, D. C., & Nagarajan, P. (2026) · Complementary Therapies in Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2026.103414
Mantra Meditation for Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis
Biurra, Y. C., Naude, C., Biurra, Z. C., & Thompson, A. (2026) · Pain Research and Management · doi:10.1155/prm/7796640
- Authors
- Lynch, J., Prihodova, L., Dunne, P. J., Carroll, Á., Walsh, C., McMahon, G., & White, B.
- Affiliations
- Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (IE)
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (IE)
- Health Service Executive (IE)
- University of Limerick (IE)
- St. James's Hospital (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Lynch, Julie
- Venue
- European Journal of Integrative Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-10
- Volume
- 23
- Pages
- 101-108
- ISSN
- 1876-3820 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2892294533
- Cited by
- 79
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Integrative Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- University of Limerick Institutional Repository (University of Limerick) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Arrow@dit (Dublin Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Funders
- Health Service Executive
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, mental health, non-clinical population, anxiety, stress, depression, burnout, anger, psychological distress, negative affectivity, employee well-being, non-pharmacological treatment
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