The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Attention on Individuals with ADHD: A Systematic Review.
Clara S C Lee, Man-Ting Ma, Hin-Yui Ho and 3 others
PMID 30186078WHAT IT FOUND
Mindfulness training was linked to better attention in adults with ADHD, and to parent or teacher reported attention gains in adolescents and children.
The evidence came from only nine small, varied studies, so it is not proof.
Key findings
01Adult ADHD studies reported significant reductions in inattention after mindfulness training, including randomized trials using MBCT or MAP.
02In adolescents, parent and teacher reports showed attention improvement in all three studies, but an adolescent study did not show self-reported improvement.
03In children, one study showed parent-reported reduction in inattention at post-test and follow-up, and teacher-reported reduction only at post-test.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Only nine studies and 400 participants were included, and the studies were too different in design and participants to combine into one statistical result. Most evidence came from adults; only three studies involved adolescents and one involved children, so conclusions for younger people are limited. Many outcomes relied on self-report, parent report, or teacher report, and those raters knew the training condition, so ratings may be biased. The review included only English-language articles and only studies using DSM-IV ADHD diagnosis, so it may have missed relevant studies. Mindfulness programmes varied in type, number of sessions, session length, and home practice, so it is unclear which components or doses work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that mindfulness training improves attention in children, adolescents and adults with ADHD. The review included only nine studies and 400 participants, and the studies were too different to combine into one overall result.