Determining the viability of breathwork and meditation as intervention techniques for stress in the forensic science community

Abstract

The aim of this project was to determine the viability of breathwork and meditation as intervention techniques for stress in the forensic science community. Practitioners in the field and students studying forensic science to become future practitioners were included as participants. The General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were used to assess the psychological changes in stress and stress responses. Salivary cortisol and cortisone measurements provided statistics to analyze hormonal changes in stress. Participants of the study were requested to partake in practicing cyclic physiological sighing and mindfulness meditation for 30 days, depending on their random assignment into these intervention groups. Subjects in the breathwork group were required to practice the method for five minutes every day, and those in the meditation group had to meditate for 15 minutes every day during the study. They provided survey responses and saliva samples before and after the intervention period, and the hypothesis was that these measurements would reflect a reduction in stress levels. To account for external variables such as previous experience with these methods, exercise habits, religious/spiritual influences, frequency of practice, length of practice during each session, and time of day of practice, these were used to create participant subsets that were analyzed for statistically significant changes (p < 0.05). The data showed that all participants who had previously practiced breathwork (p = 0.012) and students who had previously meditated (p = 0.032), regardless of their randomly assigned intervention in this study, had noticed statistically significant changes in their perceptions of stress. The mean difference of scores on the PSS for the two intervention techniques was calculated to be - 2.4 ± 5.0 for breathwork and - 2.5 ± 5.0 for meditation. The GWBS responses and the salivary measurements did not reflect any statistically significant positive changes in the direction of stress reduction. In most cases, there appeared to be an increase in scores and concentrations of the participants. The inference from the statistics analyzed in this study would suggest that practicing these interventions for 30 days only reduced one’s perception and response to stress. The inner well-being and hormonal measurements either stayed the same or increased in some cases, which could be attributed to multiple factors specific to stressors and the nuances of the cortisol-cortisone dynamic in saliva. The data also suggests that breathwork is more efficient in improving perceptions of stress among this population. The positive changes in college students makes a case for integrating these methods as teachings for healthy coping mechanisms of stress in forensic science curricula. Meditation and breathwork have a track record of improving stress levels in most cases. Therefore, future research efforts should look at implementing these interventions in this population for longer intervention periods to assess if their inner well-being and hormonal responses change significantly. Studies should also be performed to understand the enzymatic activity that converts cortisol to cortisone under the variables of stress, breathwork, and meditation.