Abstract / Summary
Schizophrenia is associated with abnormal white matter structural connectivity, and meditation has been investigated as an adjunctive intervention for clinical symptoms. This study examined whether an 8-month meditation intervention was associated with longitudinal changes in clinical symptoms, white matter structural connectivity, and graph-theoretical network properties in participants with chronic schizophrenia. Sixty-four participants diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the meditation (Med) group or the general rehabilitation programs (GRP) group, and were followed for 8 months. Diffusion MRI data and clinical symptoms were collected at baseline and at 3 and 8 months after the start of the intervention. A total of 28 Med and 26 GRP participants were included for analysis. The Group × Time interaction was significant for PANSS positive score (F = 6.94, P FDR = 0.028, η 2 = 0.118) and PANSS total score (F = 6.49, P FDR = 0.028, η 2 = 0.111), with the Med group showing greater longitudinal symptom reduction. Across 4005 structural connectivity edges, no Group × Time interaction survived FDR correction (17 edges showed nominal uncorrected P < 0.05; minimum P FDR = 1.000). Node-level graph metric analyses (540 tests across six metrics × 90 nodes) yielded no FDR-significant Group × Time effects. Among 816 exploratory Spearman correlations between edge-level FA changes and PANSS symptom changes, eight survived all-correlation FDR correction (all involving the right anterior cingulum-right orbital middle frontal gyrus connection). A covariate-adjusted sensitivity analysis controlling for age, education years, and baseline chlorpromazine-equivalent dose confirmed that no edge survived whole-family FDR correction. The 8-month meditation intervention was associated with greater reductions in PANSS positive and total scores than the active control condition. White matter edge-level and node-level findings did not survive stringent multiple-comparison correction and should be interpreted as exploratory; the within-group changes over time cannot be attributed specifically to meditation. The brain-clinical associations are likewise exploratory and require confirmation in larger studies.