In a new clinical study, peer-reviewed and published in the November 2022 issue of “Lifestyle Medicine” by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, medical researchers found that the regular practice of AMI Meditation and its allied disciplines significantly reduced burnout and secondary traumatic stress, while increasing compassion satisfaction levels in physicians and other healthcare professionals. This historic research study, which promises far-reaching protection against physician burnout was, in part, gathered during the increased stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the adverse effects of physician burnout were acknowledged as early as 1974 by Clinical psychologist Herbert Freudenberge, the increasing physical, mental and emotional pressures on all health-care providers has never been satisfactorily addressed by Mind/Body Medicine. In fact, in the September 13, 2022 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, published research co-authored by the American Medical Association now shows how the COVID-19 pandemic magnified long-standing issues that have accelerated the U.S. physician burnout rate. At the end of 2021, nearly 63% of physicians reported symptoms of burnout, up from 38% in 2020. Research further shows that large-scale change is needed to address the physician burnout.
According to the AMI Meditation study’s lead author, Mark Pettus MD, “From 2017 through 2020, a total of 54 attending physicians and health-care professionals at the annual AMI Meditation® holistic mind/body medicine conferences participated in this prospective study. Having been taught the mantra-based AMI Meditation curriculum, in addition to receiving abundant tools and support, these physicians and healthcare professionals were followed for 6-months. Using validated measurement tools to evaluate burnout scores, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress, nearly all participants demonstrated significant improvements in all measures at 3 and 6 months of study follow up. These were statistically significant findings. Even for the subgroup of participants (n = 6; all physicians) who completed the second half of the study from February to April 2020, in the midst of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and “quarantine,” there were sustained statistically significant improvements from baseline to 6 months in the secondary traumatic stress scale scores and, although not statistically significant, sustained numerical improvements were noted from baseline to 6 months for the burnout scale and compassion satisfaction scale scores, as reported in the AMI Meditation Study Table A2. From baseline and 6 months, secondary traumatic stress scores were reduced by 25.7% (p = 0.017), burnout scores were reduced by 21.5%, and compassion satisfaction scores improved by 13.2%. Of note, the changes in the three scales were numerically similar to the changes found for the whole study cohort.”
Leonard Perlmutter, founder of The American Meditation Institute and developer of the AMI Meditation proprietary curriculum states, “Physicians and other health-care professionals recognize that under burnout conditions, their energy is sapped, their creativity limited, their decision-making capacity compromised, and their bodies poisoned. But when we acknowledge that burnout begins in the mind, we can place greater emphasis on arming our medical warriors with effective mind/body tools and skills that enable them to reduce and prevent the ravages of burnout.”
The American Meditation Institute (AMI), a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization devoted to the teaching and practice of Yoga Science and AMI Meditation as holistic mind-body medicine. In its approach to wellness, AMI combines the healing arts of the East with the practicality of modern Western science. Throughout the year, The American Meditation Institute presents Leonard Perlmutter’s AMI Meditation Foundation Course, and publishes Transformation a quarterly journal of Yoga Science that contains helpful news and a complete calendar of upcoming classes.
