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A Miami University professor has recently been awarded a grant to study the impacts of Tibetan meditation practices on sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Deborah Akers, a professor in the department of anthropology, was awarded $98,366 on March 13 by the Ohio Department of Mental Health to fund the research project, titled "Treatment of Trauma Survivors: Effects of Meditation Practice on Clients' Mental Health Outcomes." The project will take place now through June 2009.
Akers' project is part of a Miami summer field program conducted by the department of anthropology, in which Miami students study Tibetan issues under monks in Dharamsala, a city in northern India.
The summer field program, Peoples and Culture of Tibet Field School, has been held in Dharamsala for the past two years. As the residence of the Dalai Lama, numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries in the town also house leading meditation teachers.
During the program, students and faculty conduct research under Tibetan monks and nuns, as well as study Tibetan Buddhism, language and literature. Students may also earn a degree in Tibetan medicine.
During this year's program, students have the opportunity to study the effects of Tibetan medicine on breast cancer, stress and PTSD, as well as studying Tibetan architecture, government, and legal systems.
In the fall, Akers, along with other Miami professors and students, will study the effects of Tibetan mediation practices on a group of women diagnosed with PTSD as part of the research project.
The meditation techniques will be led and supervised by Geshela Damdhul, a visiting Tibetan meditation master from Dharamsala.
The program will take place at the Amythest House, a half-way house for drug and alcohol addicts in Columbus, Ohio. According to Akers, the facility is ideal for the study because there are about 20 women who have already been diagnosed with PTSD.
According to Akers, the women will meditate each morning and evening for six weeks beginning in October 2007. Mental health professionals will monitor their mental health for change.
"Anything we can do to improve the lives of these women will make the study worthwhile," Akers said.
While the women will practice meditiation techniques for only six weeks, the research will continue through June 2009.
According to Akers, this program and the summer field program in Dharamsala illustrates Miami's continuing interest in South Asia in its efforts to bring people from the Himalayan area to the United States, as well as collaborate with South Asian teachers and leaders to conduct research.
The PTSD study and the summer field program allow Miami undergraduates to gain valuable research experience, Akers said.
"At many institutions, undergraduates don't get this kind of experience," Akers said.
Akers said that while meditation has often been used to reduce stress in Western cultures, it is less common for the practice to be thought of in terms of treating mental illness.
"People have not used meditation to look at mental illness," Akers said. "This is a different direction that we are going in."
Homayun Sidky, an associate anthropology professor, believes that the Tibetan meditation therapy offers benefits that modern Western medicine does not address.
"Western medicine is mechanical and deals with a diseased part of your body; this approach treats the whole human being - their mind and body," Sidky said.
Akers developed the program after interacting with monks in Dharamsala who have been political prisoners and victims of torture by the Chinese, and who now have PTSD.
According to Akers, the monks said that when combining meditation with other therapies, it is possible to decrease therapy time to about one to two years, while in America therapy takes much longer.
"I was astonished because I knew here in the (United) States, therapy can take seven to 10 years," Akers said.
According to Akers, the benefits of implementing the meditation strategies are twofold. Meditation is free, she said, benefiting low-income people who cannot afford therapy or medicine over long periods of time. Akers also believes that meditation is self-empowering because patients can put their health in their own hands instead of relying on a drug.
Akers also hopes that other people suffering from PTSD can use the Tibetan meditation strategies.
"It would be wonderful if the tactics could be transferred," Akers said. "We could set up programs for soldiers returning from war, or victims of natural disasters such as (Hurricane) Katrina."
Senior Ashley Chase, who has participated in the department of anthropology's Dharamsala summer field program, will be assisting Akers in the PTSD project. She believes that Americans are increasingly searching for substitutes to traditional medical solutions.
"I think that there will be a positive reaction to the meditation techniques because (Americans) are looking for alternative practices," Chase said.
