The Western scientific and health community of scientists and clinicians has generated in excess of 3,000 peer-reviewed articles on or referring to meditation (as featured in the major bibliographic databases such as MEDLINE and PsycINFO).
The maximum yearly output was in 2000–2001 when 12 RCTs were reported in MEDLINE. In the same time period 106 RCTs for fluoxetine, as an example of a mainstream medication, and 98 RCTs for acupuncture, as an example of a complementary medicine, were published.
The rate of publication of RCTs on meditation is poor in comparison to other therapeutic modalities in either the mental health or complementary and alternative medicine genres. Thus although meditation is often a topic of superficial discussion amongst scientists and clinicians, it is rarely the subject of in-depth scientific examination.