HeartSpace Medical Meditation Scientific Evidence

Healing the heart beyond the procedure — grounded in science.

At HeartSpace Medical Meditation, everything we do is rooted in research. Below you’ll find a collection of studies and reviews showing how common anxiety and depression are after cardiac procedures, how subconscious-based practices like guided meditation and hypnosis can support healing, and how sound and music can deepen the effect.

 1. Emotional Recovery After Cardiac Procedures

Anxiety and depression are extremely common — and clinically significant — after cardiac events. They can slow recovery, increase complications, and lower quality of life. This is why supporting the mind and nervous system is just as important as treating the heart.

-Prevalence of Depression After Myocardial Infarction – About 20% of patients develop major depression and up to 45% experience significant depressive symptoms after a heart attack.
🔗 Lichtman et al., 2014 – Circulation

-Post-cardiac surgery anxiety and depression prevalence – Systematic review: 20–40% of patients report depression and up to 50% report anxiety after cardiac surgery.
🔗 Tully & Baumeister, 2015 – Journal of Psychosomatic Research

-Psychological Distress After Stent Placement – Anxiety and depression are common after PCI (stent) and are associated with worse outcomes.
🔗 Pedersen et al., 2006 – American Heart Journal

 2. Meditation, Guided Imagery & Subconscious Healing

-Meta-analysis of hypnosis and guided imagery – Strong evidence supports hypnosis and guided imagery for reducing anxiety, pain, and distress around medical procedures.
🔗 Rosendahl et al., 2024 – PMC

-Hypnosis to manage distress during procedures – Shows measurable reductions in emotional distress during medical interventions.
🔗 Schnur et al., 2008 – PMC

-Clinical hypnosis in cardiac surgery – Reports lower anxiety, reduced pain, and faster recovery when hypnosis is used as an adjunct to standard care.
🔗 Tigges-Limmer et al., 2024 – Frontiers in Psychology

-Subconscious methods and imagery alter brain function – Neuroimaging studies show hypnosis reduces activity in fear and salience networks, increasing absorption and attention control.
🔗 Spiegel et al., 2016 – Stanford Medicine

 3. Sound, Music & Meditation

Music enhances emotional imagery – Adding music to guided imagery increases activation in emotion-related brain regions.
🔗 Li et al., 2023 – arXiv preprint

Background sound preferences in meditation – Novice meditators prefer subtle, non-melodic music; experienced meditators often prefer silence. Both conditions improve physiological coherence.
🔗 Ellard et al., 2019 – ResearchGate