Victims of PTSD include combat soldiers returning from war or victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
Researchers will work with a group of women diagnosed with PTSD who live in Amethyst House, a women's treatment program for alcohol and drug addiction in Columbus, Ohio.
Tibetan monk Geshe Kalsang Damdhul of the Institute of Higher Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India, will teach meditation and assist Deborah Akers of Miami University Ohio State University researchers in the two-year study.
Meditation has been used in a variety of therapeutic settings in the West, such as reducing stress and coping with pain, but its application in the treatment of mental illness, including PTSD, has not been extensively explored, Akers said.
"Meditation is free and can benefit individuals who cannot afford extensive therapy or medicine over long periods of time," she said.
In a summer field school program in India, Akers and Miami students learned about how Tibetan monks minister to political prisoners and victims of torture who suffer from PTSD.
