Who benefits most? Interactions between personality traits and outcomes of four incremental meditation and yoga treatments

Abstract

Mind-Body Medicine (MBM) includes a broad range of interventions of proven pre-ventive and clinical value, such as yoga and meditation. However, people differ in their preferences and response to different MBM treatments, and it remains unclear who bene-fits most from what type of practice. Thus, finding moderators of treatment outcome seems to be a promising approach. This was the aim of the present study. We conducted a single-case multiple-baseline study investigating the outcomes and moderators of four different MBM treatments. Fifty-seven healthy participants with no prior experience were randomly assigned to three baselines (7, 14, and 21 days) and four eight-week treatments: mantra meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and meditation plus yoga and ethical education. We analysed the data using effect size estima-tion, multiple regression and cluster analyses. High anxiety, high absorption, low spirituali-ty, low openness and younger age were associated with a range of positive outcomes, such as increased well-being or decentering and decreased mind-wandering. Receiving ethical education consistently improved well-being, while engaging in physical yoga reduced mind-wandering. In the cluster analysis, we found that participants with a more maladaptive per-sonality structure enhanced their emotion regulation skills more. Consequently, people do differ in their response to MBM interventions and more vulnerable people, or those high in absorption, seem to benefit more. These findings could guide the development of custom-tailored MBM interventions and help clinicians to make scientifically sound recommenda-tions for their patients.