Effect of meditation on neurophysiological changes in stress mediated depression

Meditation is a complex mental practice involving changes in sensory perception, cognition, hormonal and autonomic activity. It is widely used in psychological and medical practices for stress management as well as stress mediated mental disorders like depression. A growing body of literature has shown that meditation has profound effects on numerous physiological systems that are involved in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). Although meditation-based interventions have been associated with improvement in depressive symptoms and prevention of relapse, the physiological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of meditation are not clearly defined and even paradoxical. This paper reviews many of the physiological abnormalities found in cytokine & stress mediated depression and the reversal of these anomalies by different meditation techniques. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.