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I decided to look into this study because I've seen a lot of people misreading, misinterpreting and just all in all spreading misinformation about this. to tl:dr, the title is correct, so stop telling people that meditation always works and they just didn't do it right. (THREAD) https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1294560523971956736
(I have a PhD in materials chemistry so while this is quite obviously not my area of expertise, I do know how to research and how to read scientific studies, so I feel I can dispel some of the bullshit I keep seeing again and again)
Lets start with that this article is really just a bumper with a catchy headline. It's true that it's a clickbait headline and that the article doesn't go in any real depth. Even scientific magazines need to generate clicks. I wish that wasn't the case, but that's life.
I was also unable to find the study it's talking about because it hasn't been printed yet. The reference at the bottom is Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica in press, which means it's been accepted but not yet published.
However, using the name Miguel Farias mentioned I was able to find papers authored and co-authored by him and even a book, The Buddha Pill: Can Mediation Change You?. I was easily able to find his qualifications and his extensive prior research history
Farias studied psychology at the University of Lisbon, got his DPhil at Oxford, a postdoc at Oxford, was a research associate at Cambridge and lectured at Oxford. He is currently the head of the Brain, Belief and Behaviour research group at Coventry University.
Farias is not against meditation or mindfulness, in fact a lot of his research is fairly positive about potential benefits. He's just critical of touting it as a cure-all for all mental illnesses and that people are ignoring that it has limitations and can have negative effects.
In previous papers, Farias has repeatedly pointed out that there has not been enough research on mindfulness despite the fact that it's currently used in treatment and the research that is out there is often fundamentally flawed.
I have not read his book, I'm afraid I'm not willing to go that far for a mere twitter thread. But a brief look over his research and papers shows that he does appear to know what he's doing and his methodology seems solid.
If he says that his research has shown that a scientifically significant percentage of people experience negative effects when trying meditation (even guided meditation btw, looking at some of his research on other effects of meditation), I'd be inclined to believe him.
Does that mean meditation is useless? No. Does it invalidate it working for you? No. Does it validate people who say that mindfulness does not work for them? Yes! Is meditation exactly like every other kind of mental health treatment, with pros and cons? YES
I know a lot of people are then reading the end of the article, where a psychologist called Katie Sparks disagrees, that it's just the mind "rebelling" and says that the solution is guided meditation. Katie Sparks IS NOT part of the study or that research group.
I've seen people misread that so let me say that again: The study DOES NOT say that! The person saying that is completely unrelated to the original researchers!
In fact, I cannot find any published papers or articles by her or frankly any information on this Katie Sparks. She appears repeatedly in news articles about meditation but I cannot find any proof she is qualified in any way about it, completely unlike Miguel Farias.
I'm a little appalled by New Scientist uncritically printing the "other side" of the argument from some utterly random lady that gets trotted out every time someone talks about meditation
So, to sum up, there's a study by someone who has a lot of prior work in this field that found that while meditation can be very useful for some people, it can have negative effects and it doesn't work for everyone and should be viewed critically, as all treatments should.
Is it possible that Farias' research is wrong? Maybe, I haven't read the book or done a deep dive into all his papers to say for sure. But I can say for definite that if mediation doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work for you.
It is supremely dangerous to tout miracle cures, which is what is happening with mindfulness. Far more dangerous than pointing out negative effects. Would you recommend not telling people about the potential side effects of anti-depressants? It's the exact same thing.
So, in conclusion, everyone saying "b-but you just did it wrong or without the proper guidance" needs to STFU and take themselves and their busybody little asses out the twitter door. There is no such thing as a one size fits all solution when it comes to mental illnesses.
