Patients with ocular hypertension tend to benefit from
mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which has been proven in a recent
study to reduce IOP and cortisol levels, as well as increase optic nerve head
perfusion and quality of life.
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| Image: Mindfulness Meditation | InStyleHealth |
A tertiary eye care center in India provided 60
patients with an IOP of between 21- and 30-mm Hg for the study. They were given
the option of participating in daily hour-long MBSR meditation sessions for 6
weeks (n=30) or being placed on a waitlist and being followed up on.
The primary outcome of the study was the change in IOP
after 6 weeks of MBSR meditation. They also looked at blood cortisol levels,
diurnal variations in IOP, vascular perfusion and vessel density on optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and quality of life as a result of the
intervention.
Patients who received mindfulness-based stress
reduction or MBSR meditation sessions had a substantial reduction in IOP after
6 weeks (from 23.05 to 19.15 mm Hg; p=0.001). Waitlisted patients, on the other
hand, had no change in IOP (from 22.55 to 22.37 mm Hg; p=0.107). As a result,
the former group's change in IOP was much higher (mean, 3.93 vs 0.17 mm Hg;
p=0.001).
Furthermore, the diurnal variability of IOP was
reduced significantly in the MBSR group (from 4.87 to 2.73 mm Hg; p=0.001) but
not in the waitlist group (from 4.50 to 4.30 mm Hg; p=0.227). On OCTA, vascular perfusion, vessel density, and flux index were among the other major changes
seen with MBSR.
Finally, mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR
meditation reduced blood cortisol levels significantly (p0.001) and increased
quality of life (p=0.001).
The data show that mindfulness-based stress reduction
meditation could be used as a therapy option for ocular hypertension.