The core symptoms of addiction are hypothesized to reflect a switch to habitual drug-taking behavior underlined by craving, impaired self-control, emotional dysregulation, and increased stress reactivity. In this study, mindfulness meditation was practiced daily after brief training. This was shown to increase connectivity and activity in ACC/mPFC regions responsible for emotion regulation. These changes were reflected by heightened self-control in both smokers and nonsmokers. This indicates that meditation can help circumvent the craving and impulsive behavior that trap addicts in a cycle of abuse.

This study shows the effect of daily meditation over an 8-week period. Subjects were novices at meditation and between the ages of 18 and 45. The experimental group performed daily 13-minute guided meditation while the control listened to a podcast. After 4 weeks, no significant effect was found. However, after 8 weeks, the meditation decreased negative mood, stated anxiety, and general fatigue. It also improved the participant’s attention, working memory, and recognition memory. An overall decrease in participants’ behavioral anxiety response to the Trier social stress test was also shown, although baseline cortisol measures did not change significantly.