Effect of Meditation on Neuropsychological Profile of Prisoners

Prisoners live their life in a very stressful situation and are prone to have neuropsychological abnormalities such as impaired cognition, attention deficit, mood disorders, anxiety, migraine/headache, eating disorders, addictions, metabolic issues, etc. Even though in some cases causes are unknown but these problems may be caused by environmental factors, side effects of drugs, stressful life events, and finally affect their daily activities and damage their quality of life. As of now there is a paucity of treatment modalities to mitigate these issues in prisoners. Few studies have documented the positive effect of interventions such as Yoga, exercise, music therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and third-wave psychotherapy on prisoners. On the other hand, various studies showed the positive effect of different types of meditation like mindfulness meditation, cyclic meditation, mantra meditation, transcendental meditation, and heartfulness meditation on various populations to reduce mental conflicts, stress, and tranquilizing the mind. Meditation can change the structure and function of the brain and also reduce the default mode network activity and activate the brain region which is related to cognition, attention, working memory, conflict monitoring, and emotional control. Even though meditation has remarkable neuropsychological effects, but there is very little scientific evidence that has examined the effect of meditation in prison settings. In this chapter, we have highlighted the scientific evidence of meditation in the different neuropsychological profiles of prisoners.