Effect of Gayatri Mantra Practices on Health: A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis

Background: The Gayatri Mantra (GM), a revered hymn in Vedic scripture, has been widely practiced in Indian tradition for centuries to enhance well-being and spiritual growth. Emerging research highlights its potential benefits across various health domains. This article systematically reviews empirical literature to examine the effects of Gayatri Mantra practices (GMPs) on mental health, cognitive functioning, and physiological health parameters. Methods: The literature search was done on Scopus, PMC, PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and Google Scholar for published journal papers in the English language from June 1960 to December 2023. This review encompasses studies involving human participants, comprising randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-RCTs, self-controlled studies, and pre-post studies in which the GMP was given as a standalone intervention or in conjunction with an additional intervention. Study quality was assessed using National Heart Lung Blood Institute-National Institutes of Health study quality assessment tools (NHLBI-NIH). The data from the studies were organized in tabular format based on their objectives, intervention, methodology, tools used, participants, and findings. Results were synthesized using the narrative synthesis method. The review protocol was registered with Prospero. Results: A total of 17 studies encompassing 841 participants were included for review. The methodological qualities of the studies were fairly good; however, many of them exhibited several methodological limitations. The studies were on domains of mental health, cognitive functions, and physiological health parameters, employing both controlled intervention and pre-post-research designs. Conclusion: Based on the comprehensive analysis of all the studies in this review, the findings indicate moderate evidence for the positive effect of the GMPs in improving the mental health and cognitive functions of the individuals, and there was mild to low evidence in case of physiological parameters of health. There were limited studies on GMPs. Hence, there is a need for further high-quality empirical research with a rigorous research design to study its effect further.