***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Recent studies suggest that months to years of intensive and systematic meditation training can improve attention . However , the lengthy training required has made it difficult to use r and om assignment of participants to conditions to confirm these findings . This article shows that a group r and omly assigned to 5 days of meditation practice with the integrative body – mind training method shows significantly better attention and control of stress than a similarly chosen control group given relaxation training . The training method comes from traditional Chinese medicine and incorporates aspects of other meditation and mindfulness training . Compared with the control group , the experimental group of 40 undergraduate Chinese students given 5 days of 20-min integrative training showed greater improvement in conflict scores on the Attention Network Test , lower anxiety , depression , anger , and fatigue , and higher vigor on the Profile of Mood States scale , a significant decrease in stress-related cortisol , and an increase in immunoreactivity . These results provide a convenient method for study ing the influence of meditation training by using experimental and control methods similar to those used to test drugs or other interventions BACKGROUND Yoga and meditation have been shown to be effective in alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety in healthy volunteers and psychiatric population s. Recent work has also indicated that yoga can improve cognitive-behavioural performance and control . Although there have been no controlled studies of the effects of yoga in a prison population , we reasoned that yoga could have beneficial effects in a setting where psychosocial functioning is often low , and the frequency of impulsive behaviours is high . METHODS Participants were recruited from 7 British prisons and r and omly allocated to either a 10-week yoga programme ( yoga group ; 1 class per week ; N = 45 ) or a control group ( N = 55 ) . Self-report measures of mood , stress , and psychological distress were collected before and after the intervention period . Participants completed a cognitive-behavioural task ( Go/No-Go ) at the end of the study , which assessed behavioural response inhibition and sustained attention . RESULTS Participants in the yoga group showed increased self-reported positive affect , and reduced stress and psychological distress , compared to participants in the control group . Participants who completed the yoga course also showed better performance in the cognitive-behavioural task , making significantly fewer errors of omission in Go trials and fewer errors of commission on No-Go trials , compared to control participants . CONCLUSIONS Yoga may be effective in improving subjective wellbeing , mental health , and executive functioning within prison population s. This is an important consideration given the consistently high rates of psychological morbidity in this group and the need for effective and economical intervention programmes Background : The dem and for clinical ly efficacious , safe , patient acceptable , and cost-effective forms of treatment for mental illness is growing . Several studies have demonstrated benefit from yoga in specific psychiatric symptoms and a general sense of well-being . Objective : To systematic ally examine the evidence for efficacy of yoga in the treatment of selected major psychiatric disorders . Methods : Electronic search es of The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and the st and ard bibliographic data bases , MEDLINE , EMBASE , and PsycINFO , were performed through April 2011 and an up date d in June 2011 using the keywords yoga AND psychiatry OR depression OR anxiety OR schizophrenia OR cognition OR memory OR attention AND r and omized controlled trial ( RCT ) . Studies with yoga as the independent variable and one of the above mentioned terms as the dependent variable were included and exclusion criteria were applied . Results : The search yielded a total of 124 trials , of which 16 met rigorous criteria for the final review . Grade B evidence supporting a potential acute benefit for yoga exists in depression ( four RCTs ) , as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy in schizophrenia ( three RCTs ) , in children with ADHD ( two RCTs ) , and Grade C evidence in sleep complaints ( three RCTs ) . RCTs in cognitive disorders and eating disorders yielded conflicting results . No studies looked at primary prevention , relapse prevention , or comparative effectiveness versus pharmacotherapy . Conclusion : There is emerging evidence from r and omized trials to support popular beliefs about yoga for depression , sleep disorders , and as an augmentation therapy . Limitations of literature include inability to do double-blind studies , multiplicity of comparisons within small studies , and lack of replication . Biomarker and neuroimaging studies , those comparing yoga with st and ard pharmaco- and psychotherapies , and studies of long-term efficacy are needed to fully translate the promise of yoga for enhancing mental health The present study evaluated whether Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ) symptom severity was associated with participation and treatment outcomes comparing a Vipassana meditation course to treatment as usual in an incarcerated sample . This study utilizes secondary data . The original study demonstrated that Vipassana meditation is associated with reductions in substance use . The present study found that PTSD symptom severity did not differ significantly between those who did and did not volunteer to take the course . Participation in the Vipassana course was associated with significantly greater reductions in substance use than treatment as usual , regardless of PTSD symptom severity levels . These results suggest that Vipassana meditation is worthy of further study for those with comorbid PTSD and substance use problems BACKGROUND Emotional distress is an increasing public health problem and Hatha yoga has been cl aim ed to induce stress reduction and empowerment in practicing subjects . We aim ed to evaluate potential effects of Iyengar Hatha yoga on perceived stress and associated psychological outcomes in mentally distressed women . MATERIAL / METHODS A controlled prospect i ve non-r and omized study was conducted in 24 self-referred female subjects ( mean age 37.9+/-7.3 years ) who perceived themselves as emotionally distressed . Subjects were offered participation in one of two subsequential 3-months yoga programs . Group 1 ( n=16 ) participated in the first class , group 2 ( n=8 ) served as a waiting list control . During the yoga course , subjects attended two-weekly 90-min Iyengar yoga classes . Outcome was assessed on entry and after 3 months by Cohen Perceived Stress Scale , State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , Profile of Mood States , CESD-Depression Scale , Bf-S/Bf-S ' Well-Being Scales , Freiburg Complaint List and ratings of physical well-being . Salivary cortisol levels were measured before and after an evening yoga class in a second sample . RESULTS Compared to waiting-list , women who participated in the yoga-training demonstrated pronounced and significant improvements in perceived stress ( P<0.02 ) , State and Trait Anxiety ( P<0.02 and P<0.01 , respectively ) , well-being ( P<0.01 ) , vigor ( P<0.02 ) , fatigue ( P<0.02 ) and depression ( P<0.05 ) . Physical well-being also increased ( P<0.01 ) , and those subjects suffering from headache or back pain reported marked pain relief . Salivary cortisol decreased significantly after participation in a yoga class ( P<0.05 ) . CONCLUSIONS Women suffering from mental distress participating in a 3-month Iyengar yoga class show significant improvements on measures of stress and psychological outcomes . Further investigation of yoga with respect to prevention and treatment of stress-related disease and of underlying mechanism is warranted BACKGROUND This report presents the results of confirmatory factor analyses of patterns of comorbidity among 10 common mental disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey , a national probability sample of US civilians who completed structured diagnostic interviews . METHODS Patterns of comorbidity among DSM-III-R mental disorders were analyzed via confirmatory factor analyses for the entire National Comorbidity Survey sample ( N = 8098 ; age range , 15 - 54 years ) , for r and om halves of the sample , for men and women separately , and for a sub sample of participants who were seeing a professional about their mental health problems . Four models were compared : a 1-factor model , a 2-factor model in which some disorders represented internalizing problems and others represented externalizing problems , a 3-factor variant of the 2-factor model in which internalizing was modeled as having 2 subfactors ( anxious-misery and fear ) , and a 4-factor model in which the disorders represented separate affective , anxiety , substance dependence , and antisocial factors . RESULTS The 3-factor model provided the best fit in the entire sample . This result was replicated across r and om halves of the sample as well as across women and men . The substantial empirical intercorrelation between anxious-misery and fear ( 0.73 ) suggested that these factors were most appropriately conceived as subfactors of a higher-order internalizing factor . In the treatment sample , the 2-factor model fit best . CONCLUSIONS The results offer a novel perspective on comorbidity , suggesting that comorbidity results from common , underlying core psychopathological processes . The results thereby argue for focusing research on these core processes themselves , rather than on their varied manifestations as separate disorders Psychological  distress among college students represents a serious health concern . The aim of this research was to investigate , for the first time , whether interactions between rumination and different measures of stress could differentially predict components of psychological distress , within a diathesis-stress framework . This self-report study employed a longitudinal design , spanning a period of 6 months . One hundred sixty-one undergraduate college students completed selected measures of psychological distress , rumination , and stress at two time points 6 months apart . Both independent and interaction effects were examined through hierarchical regression analyses . Rumination and stress were found to interact significantly to predict the social dysfunction components of psychological distress . Other main effects are reported . The evidence supported the proposed diathesis-stress model and extended previous research by relating rumination to different components of psychological distress prospect ively PURPOSE This study examines the impact of yoga , including physical poses , breathing , and meditation exercises , on quality of life ( QOL ) , fatigue , distressed mood , and spiritual well-being among a multiethnic sample of breast cancer patients . PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred twenty-eight patients ( 42 % African American , 31 % Hispanic ) recruited from an urban cancer center were r and omly assigned ( 2:1 ratio ) to a 12-week yoga intervention ( n = 84 ) or a 12-week waitlist control group ( n = 44 ) . Changes in QOL ( eg , Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy ) from before r and om assignment ( T1 ) to the 3-month follow-up ( T3 ) were examined ; predictors of adherence were also assessed . Nearly half of all patients were receiving medical treatment . RESULTS Regression analyses indicated that the control group had a greater decrease in social well-being compared with the intervention group after controlling for baseline social well-being and covariates ( P < .0001 ) . Secondary analyses of 71 patients not receiving chemotherapy during the intervention period indicated favorable outcomes for the intervention group compared with the control group in overall QOL ( P < .008 ) , emotional well-being ( P < .015 ) , social well-being ( P < .004 ) , spiritual well-being ( P < .009 ) , and distressed mood ( P < .031 ) . Sixty-nine percent of intervention participants attended classes ( mean number of classes attended by active class participants = 7.00 + /- 3.80 ) , with lower adherence associated with increased fatigue ( P < .001 ) , radiotherapy ( P < .0001 ) , younger age ( P < .008 ) , and no  antiestrogen therapy  ( P < .02 ) . CONCLUSION Despite limited adherence , this intent-to-treat analysis suggests that yoga is associated with beneficial effects on social functioning among a medically diverse sample of breast cancer survivors . Among patients not receiving chemotherapy , yoga appears to enhance emotional well-being and mood and may serve to buffer deterioration in both overall and specific domains of QOL 
    Output:
    
Overall , the evidence suggests that yoga and meditation have favourable effects on prisoners