Objective: To investigate the efficacy of Asokukan in stress management of Parkinson’s syndrome patients.
Background: Stress management is very important in intractable neurological diseases. Currently, physical rehabilitation, psychological support, music therapy, etc. are being clinically applied. But there is no rehabilitation method integrates eyesight, hearing, smelling, tasting, tactile sense, and thinking. Traditional Mikkyo Buddhism meditation (Asokukan) methods that use all physical, verbal, and psychological activities are thought to be the breakthrough.
Method: The meditation was performed every morning and evening for 5 minutes a day. 23 healthy and consent volunteers and 20 patients of Parkinson’s syndrome participated the trial. Evaluations were made at the start of the test, every four weeks, with a stressor test (GHQ 28), UPDRS part I, and utterance duration. Follow-up was performed up to 24 weeks.
Results: At baseline, 10 of 23 healthy volunteers exceeded cut-off of GHQ28. 16 of 20 Parkinson’s syndrome patients exceeded cut off. After 4 weeks, 10 cases of healthy volunteers over the cut-off decreased to 4 cases, and after 12 weeks they decreased to 1 case. In Parkinson’s syndrome patients, all of cases improved GHQ28 score. Both groups finally showed that all of cases improved the scores lower than cut-off of GHQ 28 part of (1)physical symptoms and (2)social disorders. All cases that exceeded cut off improved of (3)anxiety and sleeping disorders (4)Depression tendency. UPDRS partI showed a tendency to improvement, and all patients of Parkinson’s syndrome had prolonged vocalization time.
Conclusion: Asokukan have shown very effective stress-reducing effects in healthy adults and Parkinson’s syndrome patients. In addition, prolonged vocalization time and increased activity as subjective symptoms were observed. Stress is directly related to the prognosis of the disease as well as the patient’s QOL, and traditional Mikkyo Buddhism meditation may be very effective as a clinical application of stress management for intractable diseases.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
S. Murahashi, Y. Takeuchi, Y. Hara. The efficacy of traditional Mikkyo Buddhism meditation in stress management of Parkinson’s syndrome patients [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2020; 35 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-efficacy-of-traditional-mikkyo-buddhism-meditation-in-stress-management-of-parkinsons-syndrome-patients/. Accessed May 10, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2020
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-efficacy-of-traditional-mikkyo-buddhism-meditation-in-stress-management-of-parkinsons-syndrome-patients/