
Jonathan N DaviesUniversity of Melbourne | MSD · Contemplative Studies Centre
Jonathan N Davies
BSc (Hons), MSc PhD Candidate
Postdoctoral research fellow at the Contemplative Studies Centre, University of Melbourne
About
22
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
July 2021 - July 2021
January 2017 - present
April 2011 - April 2014
Publications
Publications (22)
Estimates suggest that meditation use is comparable to mental-health-service access in the United States. Understanding meditation-related adverse effects (AEs) is therefore critical. We aimed to (a) estimate the incidence of meditation-related unusual experiences and AEs using different methods and (b) identify sociodemographic and health-related...
Meditation, yoga, guided imagery, and progressive relaxation are promoted as complementary approaches for health and wellbeing in the United States, but their uptake by different sociodemographic groups is unclear. This study assessed the prevalence and 20 year trends in the use of these practices in US adults between 2002–2022. We examined practic...
Objectives
Meditation is increasingly popular, and yet studies of meditation-related adverse effects, or experiences of unusual psychological states, have mostly focused on those of extremely unpleasant or pleasant nature, respectively, despite the wide range of possible experiences. We aimed to create an instrument to capture meditation-related ex...
Meditation, yoga, guided imagery, and progressive relaxation are promoted as complementary approaches for health and wellbeing in the United States, but their uptake by different sociodemographic groups is unclear. This study assessed the prevalence and 20-year trends in the use of these practices in US adults between 2002-2022. We examined practic...
Background: Alongside the increased popularity of meditation, examination and understanding of unusual psychological states and potential adverse effects is improving, however early incidence estimates vary widely. Objective: We aimed to (a) estimate incidence rates of meditation-related unusual experiences and adverse effects by varying definition...
Meditation is increasingly popular, and yet studies of meditation-related adverse effects, or experiences of unusual psychological states, have mostly focused on those of extremely unpleasant or pleasant nature respectively, despite the wide range of possible experiences. We aimed to create an instrument to capture meditation-related experiences of...
Mindfulness meditation is now practiced broadly in both religious and secular contexts, with numerous studies indicating potential benefits across a range of psychosocial domains. However, despite significant research effort, we still know little about dose-response effects – how frequently or for how longindividuals might need to practice mindfuln...
Mindfulness apps are becoming popular treatments for chronic pain and mental health, despite mixed evidence supporting their efficacy. Furthermore, it is unclear whether improvements in pain are due to mindfulness-specific effects or placebo effects because no trials have compared mindfulness against a sham control. The objective of this study was...
Mindfulness apps are becoming popular treatments for chronic pain and mental health, despite mixed evidence supporting their efficacy. Further, it is unclear whether improvements in pain are due to mindfulness-specific effects or placebo effects because no trials have compared mindfulness against a sham control. The objective of this study was to c...
This study investigated the analgesic effects of a single session of mindfulness meditation (MM) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) relative to a control. A total of 100 adults with chronic or current problematic pain completed a survey and were randomized to a 20-minute MM, LKM, or audiobook control. Co-primary outcomes of pain intensity and unp...
Objectives
Meta-analyses of meditation studies have revealed mixed modest evidence of benefits across a range of outcomes. However, because this evidence-base is predominantly from brief interventions, it is unclear whether it accurately reflects how contemporary meditators practice or the dose–response relationship between amount of practice and o...
Recent sham-controlled studies suggest placebo effects contribute to acute pain relief following mindfulness interventions. However, the specific effects of mindfulness processes and their interaction with placebo effects remain unclear. This study aimed to characterize the role of mindfulness and placebo processes underlying mindfulness-based pain...
Objectives: Experimental studies of meditation practice predominantly examine short-term programs and reveal modest benefits. Thus it is not clear to what degree these results represent how contemporary meditators practice nor the dose-response relationship between amount of practice and outcome. This study sought to characterize how contemporary m...
Objective:
Meta-analyses indicate mindfulness meditation is efficacious for chronic and acute pain, but most available studies lack active control comparisons. This raises the possibility that placebo-related processes may account, at least in part, for mindfulness effects. The objective of this study was to develop a closely matched sham mindfuln...
Recent meta-analyses have shown MBIs to be effective for chronic pain, but no pooled estimates of the effect of MBIs on acute pain are available. This meta-analysis was conducted to fill that gap. A literature search was conducted in four databases. Articles were eligible if they reported on randomized controlled trials of MBIs for people with acut...
Mental health nursing consistently emerges as less popular than other specialties, and both service users and mental health practitioners are affected by negative attitudes. Education is fundamental to attracting students to the field of mental health nursing. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of undergraduate mental health curricul...
Intuitive somatosensory feedback is required for fine motor control. Here we explored whether thalamic electrical stimulation could provide the necessary durations and consistency of percepts for a human somatosensory neural prosthetic. Continuous and cycling high-frequency (185 Hz, 0.21 ms pulse duration charge balanced square wave) electrical pul...
Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels are responsible for the activation of the Ca2+ influx that triggers exocytotic secretion. The synaptic protein interaction (synprint) site found in the II–III loop of CaV2.1 and CaV2.2 mediates a physical association with synaptic proteins that may be crucial for fast neurotransmission and axonal targeting.
We report her...
Coupling of presynaptic voltage-gated calcium channels to the synaptic release machinery is critical for neurotransmission. It was traditionally believed that anchoring calcium channels close to the calcium microdomain dependent release machinery was the main reason for the physical interactions between channels and synaptic proteins, however in re...