PTSD and war veterans—can mindfulness help?

Anthony King on the neuroscience behind using mindfulness to help war veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Photo: rahuldlucca/Flickr.com

Listen as Mindful.org’s editor-in-chief, Barry Boyce, interviews Tony King, assistant professor of psychiatry and research at the University of Michigan Medical School, at the recent International Symposia for Contemplative Studies in Denver, Colorado.

Facilitated by the Mind & Life Institute, the symposia brought together a diverse group of researchers and scholars from all over the word to “explore the correlates and consequences of contemplative practice.”

In this video, King talks about his own experience with meditation and mindfulness, as well as what inspired him to involve mindfulness in his scientific research.

For the past five years or so, King has led studies trying to understand the basic neurophysiology and predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of King’s pilot studies are now looking at how a number of established mindfulness-based interventions can help war veterans with PTSD.

a snapshot of a survival kit from the Gulf War, January 1991.