The DOI matches its Crossref record; 76 of the 76 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Open accessAbstract
Mindfulness meditation represents a mental training framework for cultivating the state of mindful awareness in daily life. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in how mindfulness meditation improves human health and well‐being. Although studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can improve self‐reported measures of disease symptomatology, the effect that mindfulness meditation has on biological mechanisms underlying human aging and disease is less clear. To address this issue, we conducted the first comprehensive review of randomized controlled trials examining the effects of mindfulness meditation on immune system parameters, with a specific focus on five outcomes: (1) circulating and stimulated inflammatory proteins, (2) cellular transcription factors and gene expression, (3) immune cell count, (4) immune cell aging, and (5) antibody response. This analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity across studies with respect to patient population, study design, and assay procedures. The findings suggest possible effects of mindfulness meditation on specific markers of inflammation, cell‐mediated immunity, and biological aging, but these results are tentative and require further replication. On the basis of this analysis, we describe the limitations of existing work and suggest possible avenues for future research. Mindfulness meditation may be salutogenic for immune system dynamics, but additional work is needed to examine these effects.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“In non-pregnant adults, MT has been shown to alter the functioning of autonomic nervous and immune system pathways associated with hypertension.31,32”
From Prenatal Mindfulness Training and Interoceptive Awareness in Pregnant People at Risk for Hypertensive Disorders. (2024) · cites this paper as [32]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Additional evidence has also shown that MBIs may enhance personal well-being, perceptual sensitivity, processing speed, empathy, concentration, reaction time, motor skills, immune function, and performance outcomes. 40-45”
From Randomized Controlled Trials of Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Interventions Over the Past Two Decades: A Bibliometric Analysis. (2021) · cites this paper as [45]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“the effects of mindfulness practice on health appear similar in magnitude to the changes demonstrated by other conventional approaches for treating stress, pain, and illness, including the administration of psychoactive medications, psychotherapy, health education, and behaviour modification2,64.”
From Mindfulness-based online intervention increases well-being and decreases stress after Covid-19 lockdown (2022) · cites this paper as [2]
In the citing paper
“Concordantly, several randomized controlled trials targeting stress management have largely lead to improvement in the morbidity of inflammatory diseases (Black and Slavich, 2016; Pbert et al., 2012; Simpson et al., 2014).”
From Origin and function of stress-induced IL-6 in murine models (2020) · cites this paper as Black and Slavich, 2016
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003) · Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy.bpg016 · Cited by 8,615 · cited 3×
“We focused specifically on five immune system outcomes that are relevant for health, namely (1) circulating and stimulated inflammatory proteins, (2) cellular transcription factors and gene expression, (3) immune cell count, (4) immune cell aging, and (5) antibody response.”
Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003) · Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy/bpg016 · Cited by 8,612
Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits
Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00573-7 · Cited by 3,958
The effect of mindfulness based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta analytic review
Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A. A., & Oh, D. (2010) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0018555 · Cited by 3,846
Structure and function of telomeres
Blackburn, E. H. (1991) · Nature · doi:10.1038/350569a0 · Cited by 3,596
Nuclear factor-κB in cancer development and progression
Karin, M. (2006) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04870 · Cited by 3,519
Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation
Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., Urbanowski, F., Harrington, A., Bonus, K., & Sheridan, J. F. (2003) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000077505.67574.e3 · Cited by 2,925
Systematic review and meta-analysis
Gillies, A. (2019) · CRC Press eBooks · doi:10.1201/9781315377315-19 · Cited by 2,876
Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M. S., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., Berger, Z., Sleicher, D., Maron, D. D., Shihab, H. M., et al. (2014) · JAMA Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018 · Cited by 2,380
Slavich, G. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2014) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0035302 · Cited by 2,206
Self-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018 · DOI · Paper page
- Black D.S., 2014, Mindfulness‐based interventions in routine clinical care for stress‐related ailments: comment, JAMA Intern. Med, 174, 357
- Greeson J.M., 2014, The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness, Vol. II, 533
- 10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8081 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1007/s10461-013-0612-z · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Creswell, J. D. (2017) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-042716-051139 · Cited by 1,702
“Mindfulness interventions may potentially modulate these stress-related immune outcomes, and initial RCTs demonstrate promising effects on some immune markers (for a review, see Black & Slavich 2016).”
Allen, K., Kern, M. L., Rozek, C. S., McInerney, D. M., & Slavich, G. M. (2021) · Australian Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1080/00049530.2021.1883409 · Cited by 1,283
“…have been shown to change not just cognitions about other people and the world (Borman et al., 2019; Butler et al., 2006) but also basic biological processes involved in the immune system that are known to affect human health and behaviour (Black & Slavich, 2016; Shields et al., 2020).”
BackgroundSelf-citationMindfulness-based interventions: an overall review
Zhang, D., Lee, E. K. P., Mak, E. C. W., Ho, C. Y., & Wong, S. Y. S. (2021) · British Medical Bulletin · doi:10.1093/bmb/ldab005 · Cited by 668
“factor NF-kB, reductions in circulating levels of C-reactive protein, increases in CD4+ T cell count (in HIV-diagnosed individuals), and increases in telomerase activity.(120) Another systematic review on RCTs found that, compared to an active control (relaxation, exercise or education), mindfulness meditation reduced…”
BackgroundSlavich, G. M. (2020) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045159 · Cited by 502
Self-citationEffects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on employees’ mental health: A systematic review
Janssen, M., Heerkens, Y., Kuijer, W., van der Heijden, B., & Engels, J. (2018) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191332 · Cited by 415
Metadata
- Authors
- Black, D. S., & Slavich, G. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Black, David S.
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2016-01-21
- Volume
- 1373
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13-24
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- PMC
- PMC4940234
- OpenAlex
- W2293546053
- Cited by
- 599
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 61 · 2025: 84 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 66 · 2022: 58 · 2021: 72 · 2020: 74 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 15
- FWCI
- 5.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Biodemography and Population Health (P30 AG017265)
- National Institute of Mental Health (K08 MH103443)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Biofield Effects and Biophysics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- mindfulness meditation, immune system, inflammation, inflammatory proteins, cell-mediated immunity, antibody response, gene expression, transcription factors, biological aging, salutogenesis
- MeSH terms
- Awareness, Humans, Immune System, Immunity, Cellular, Stress, Psychological, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Meditation, Mindfulness
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
