New Jersey Today: Recovering alcoholics may benefit in the battle over the bottle if they practice mindfulness meditation.
That’s according to a Wisconsin physician-researcher who is one of the few in the country testing the possible connection between meditation and the prevention of relapse to drinking among those dependent on alcohol.
Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was the lead researcher in a 16-week pilot clinical trial with 19 participants recruited from addiction treatment clinics. She says the results of her first study (published in 2008) showed mindfulness meditation could be a useful supplementary technique for alcoholics trying to avoid relapse.
“Our findings were consistent with those of large randomized trials of conventional therapies for alcohol-relapse prevention,” says Zgierska. “Those in our study reported being abstinent about 95 percent of the days, with 47 percent reporting complete abstinence…