The Pilot Study of the Effect of Meditation to the Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) of Medical Students, Srinakharinvirot University
Wanpen Turakitwanakan MD*, Chantana Mekseepralard PhD**, Panaree Busarakumtragul PhD***
Affiliation : * Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand ** Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand *** Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand
Background : Mindfulness meditation is a method to decrease stress and increase memory. So, mindfulness meditation should
increase serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
Objective : To study the effect of mindfulness meditation on the serum BDNF of medical students.
Material and Method: The study group consisted of 30 male and female second-year medical students that volunteered to
participate in the study, aged 19.1+0.55 year olds (range 18-20) from Srinakharinwirot University. Their blood was drawn
to measure BDNF before and after a four-day mindfulness meditation programme. The comparison of serum BDNF levels
before and after meditation were analysed by paired t-test.
Results : The subjects were 66.77% female and 33.33% male. The average serum BDNF level before the meditation was
17.67 ng/ml (SD 3.58). After meditation, there was a decrease in serum BDNF to 17.34 ng/ml, which was however not
statistically significant (SD 4.04, p>0.05).
Conclusion : The levels of blood BDNF decreases slightly after practising meditation. We plan to investigate the reason in the
future.
Keywords : Mindfulness meditation, Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), Medical students
