Do Cochrane reviews reflect the latest evidence on meditation and mindfulness-based interventions? A snapshot of the current evidence

Abstract

Growing evidence emphasizes the importance of meditation and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in clinical settings. Here, we attempted to determine the clinical issues targeted by Cochrane reviews of meditation and MBIs and whether the judgements about quality/certainty as expressed by the Cochrane authors differed from that of non-Cochrane reviews and guidelines. The search database was the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the search date was December 31, 2019. Screening and selection of reviews was carried out by two independent authors. Overall, 20 reviews and four protocols were selected for this study. The effects of meditation and/or MBIs on various conditions described in the Cochrane reviews seemed ambiguous, with the exception of mindfulness-based stress reduction in breast cancer patients. However, we found some international clinical practice guidelines and latest non-Cochrane reviews describing meditation and MBIs to be more comprehensive and favorable. This gap is likely due to the priority-setting issues, which resulted in a lack of latest up-to-date evidence, as well as gaps in interventions of interest between Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews.