Background: Although aesthetic correction of facial aging had long been the exclusive domain of plastic surgeons and dermatologists, alternative nonmedical approaches to facial rejuvenation are becoming more popular, such as facial acupuncture, facial acupressure, and facial exercises. However, the effectiveness of these alternative approaches is still a topic of debate. Objectives: The authors review the evidence of the effectiveness of facial exercises for facial rejuvenation. Methods: A literature search was performed in Medline, Web of Science, Science Direct, SciELO, and LILACS databases for the terms facial rejuvenation, facial exercises, facial massage, face building, face yoga, (oro)facial (a)esthetics, (a)esthetic logopedics, and (a)esthetic speech therapy. Nine reports were identified from the search and were subject to further assessment. Results: Although positive outcomes were achieved in all 9 studies, none of the studies used a control group and randomization process. They were single case reports, small case series, or studies with a single-group pretest-posttest design. Moreover, the effectiveness assessments in most of the studies were purely subjective, carried out by the authors and/or the patients themselves, without blinding. Conclusions: The evidence to date is insufficient to determine whether facial exercises are effective for facial rejuvenation. Evidence from large randomized controlled trials will be needed before conclusions can be drawn.
A successful clinical trial is dependent on recruitment. Between December 2003 and February 2006, our team successfully enrolled 289 participants in a large, single-center, randomized placebo-controlled trial (RCT) studying the impact of the patient-doctor relationship and acupuncture on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. This paper reports on the effectiveness of standard recruitment methods such as physician referral, newspaper advertisements, fliers, audio and video media (radio and television commercials) as well as relatively new methods not previously extensively reported on such as internet ads, ads in mass-transit vehicles and movie theater previews. We also report the fraction of cost each method consumed and fraction of recruitment each method generated. Our cost per call from potential participants varied from $3–$103 and cost per enrollment participant varied from $12–$584. Using a novel metric, the efficacy index, we found that physician referrals and flyers were the most effective recruitment method in our trial. Despite some methods being more efficient than others, all methods contributed to the successful recruitment. The iterative use of the efficacy index during a recruitment campaign may be helpful to calibrate and focus on the most effective recruitment methods.
A successful clinical trial is dependent on recruitment. Between December 2003 and February 2006, our team successfully enrolled 289 participants in a large, single-center, randomized placebo-controlled trial (RCT) studying the impact of the patient-doctor relationship and acupuncture on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. This paper reports on the effectiveness of standard recruitment methods such as physician referral, newspaper advertisements, fliers, audio and video media (radio and television commercials) as well as relatively new methods not previously extensively reported on such as internet ads, ads in mass-transit vehicles and movie theater previews. We also report the fraction of cost each method consumed and fraction of recruitment each method generated. Our cost per call from potential participants varied from $3–$103 and cost per enrollment participant varied from $12–$584. Using a novel metric, the efficacy index, we found that physician referrals and flyers were the most effective recruitment method in our trial. Despite some methods being more efficient than others, all methods contributed to the successful recruitment. The iterative use of the efficacy index during a recruitment campaign may be helpful to calibrate and focus on the most effective recruitment methods.
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This study evaluated the effects of Progressive Self-focus Meditation with 42 volunteers (M age = 46.0 yr., SD = 14.1) allocated to two groups: one that had weekly 1-hr. training sessions in the practice for 5 wk. and one waiting-list group. Participants were evaluated before and after 5 wk. on the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, the Digit Symbol subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale. After 5 wk., a significant reduction in scores on depression was found in the Meditation group as well as an increase in attention in comparison with the waiting-list Control group.
<p>Abstract Two nine member classes for behaviorally disturbed 8 to 11 year old males and females were randomly selected for a treatment or a no‐treatment group. Time spent in off‐task behavior was recorded by two observers via a time sampling technique. One group practiced Benson's meditative‐relaxation technique while the no‐treatment subjects were instructed to relax for the same 20 minute sessions over a five day period. Non‐attending behavior levels were recorded during the treatment period. The t‐test for pretest to post‐test mean change differences of non‐attending behavior for the two groups reflected a significant reduction (p < .001) in the number of non‐attending behaviors for the treatment group.</p>
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IntroductionSleep disturbance is common and associated with compromised health status. Cognitive processes characterized by stress and worry can cause, or contribute to, sleep complaints. This study systematically evaluated the evidence that sleep can be improved by mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a formalized psychoeducational intervention that helps individuals self-manage and reframe worrisome and intrusive thoughts.
Methods
Articles were identified from searches of Medline, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Digital Dissertations, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Eligible for inclusion were English language clinical trials of MBSR that reported preintervention and postintervention measures of sleep quality or duration. Studies employing multicomponent interventions were excluded. Studies were reviewed independently by the first and second authors.
Results
Thirty-eight articles were identified for review. Seven met inclusion criteria. Lack of standardized outcome measures precluded pooling of results for quantitative data analysis. Sleep report measures varied (standardized scales, single item, sleep diaries). Four studies (all uncontrolled) found that MBSR significantly improved measures of sleep quality or duration. The remaining studies found no statistically significant difference between treatment and control conditions.
Conclusions
To date, controlled studies have not clearly demonstrated the positive effects of MBSR on sleep quality and duration. However, there is some evidence to suggest that increased practice of mindfulness techniques is associated with improved sleep and that MBSR participants experience a decrease in sleep-interfering cognitive processes (eg, worry). More research is needed using standardized sleep scales and methods, with particular attention to the importance of MBSR home practice.
Background: Mindfulness training (MT) includes a variety of contemplative practices aimed at promoting intentional awareness of experience, coupled with attitudes of nonjudgment and curiosity. Following the success of 8-week, manualized group interventions, MT has been implemented in a variety of modalities, including smartphone apps that seek to replicate the success of group interventions. However, although smartphone apps are scalable and accessible to a wider swath of population, their benefits remain largely untested. Objective: This study aimed to investigate a newly developed MT app called Wildflowers, which was codeveloped with the laboratory for use in mindfulness research. It was hypothesized that 3 weeks of MT through this app would improve subjective well-being, attentional control, and interoceptive integration, albeit with weaker effects than those published in the 8 week, manualized group intervention literature. Methods: Undergraduate students completed 3 weeks of MT with Wildflowers (n=45) or 3 weeks of cognitive training with a game called 2048 (n=41). State training effects were assessed through pre- and postsession ratings of current mood, stress level, and heart rate. Trait training effects were assessed through pre- and postintervention questionnaires canvassing subjective well-being and behavioral task measures of attentional control and interoceptive integration. State and trait training data were analyzed in a multilevel model using emergent latent factors (acceptance, awareness, and openness) to summarize the trait questionnaire battery. Results: Analyses revealed both state and trait effects specific to MT; participants engaging in MT demonstrated improved mood (r=.14) and a reduction of stress (r=-.13) immediately after each training session compared with before the training session and decreased postsession stress over 3 weeks (r=-.08). In addition, MT relative to cognitive training resulted in greater improvements in attentional control (r=-.24). Interestingly, both groups demonstrated increased subjective ratings of awareness (r=.28) and acceptance (r=.23) from pre- to postintervention, with greater changes in acceptance for the MT group trending (r=.21). Conclusions: MT, using a smartphone app, may provide immediate effects on mood and stress while also providing long-term benefits for attentional control. Although further investigation is warranted, there is evidence that with continued usage, MT via a smartphone app may provide long-term benefits in changing how one relates to their inner and outer experiences.
OBJECTIVE: We examined the effects of sensory-enhanced hatha yoga on symptoms of combat stress in deployed military personnel, compared their anxiety and sensory processing with that of stateside civilians, and identified any correlations between the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scales and the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile quadrants.METHOD: Seventy military personnel who were deployed to Iraq participated in a randomized controlled trial. Thirty-five received 3 wk (≥9 sessions) of sensory-enhanced hatha yoga, and 35 did not receive any form of yoga.
RESULTS: Sensory-enhanced hatha yoga was effective in reducing state and trait anxiety, despite normal pretest scores. Treatment participants showed significantly greater improvement than control participants on 16 of 18 mental health and quality-of-life factors. We found positive correlations between all test measures except sensory seeking. Sensory seeking was negatively correlated with all measures except low registration, which was insignificant.
CONCLUSION: The results support using sensory-enhanced hatha yoga for proactive combat stress management.
OBJECTIVE: We examined the effects of sensory-enhanced hatha yoga on symptoms of combat stress in deployed military personnel, compared their anxiety and sensory processing with that of stateside civilians, and identified any correlations between the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scales and the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile quadrants.METHOD: Seventy military personnel who were deployed to Iraq participated in a randomized controlled trial. Thirty-five received 3 wk (≥9 sessions) of sensory-enhanced hatha yoga, and 35 did not receive any form of yoga.
RESULTS: Sensory-enhanced hatha yoga was effective in reducing state and trait anxiety, despite normal pretest scores. Treatment participants showed significantly greater improvement than control participants on 16 of 18 mental health and quality-of-life factors. We found positive correlations between all test measures except sensory seeking. Sensory seeking was negatively correlated with all measures except low registration, which was insignificant.
CONCLUSION: The results support using sensory-enhanced hatha yoga for proactive combat stress management.
BackgroundDepression is one of the most common disorders in Psychiatric and Primary Care settings and is associated with significant disability and economic costs. Low-intensity psychological interventions applied by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) could be an efficacious and cost-effective therapeutic option for the treatment of depression. The aim of this study is to assess 3 low-intensity psychological interventions applied by ICTs (healthy lifestyle, positive affect and mindfulness) in Primary Care; significant efficacy for depression treatment has previously showed in specialized clinical settings by those interventions, but ICTs were not used.
Method
Multicenter controlled randomized clinical trial in 4 parallel groups. Interventions have been designed and on-line device adaptation has been carried out. Subsequently, the randomized controlled clinical trial will be conducted. A sample of N = 240 mild and moderate depressed patients will be recruited and assessed in Primary Care settings. Patients will be randomly assigned to a) healthy lifestyle psychoeducational program + improved primary care usual treatment (ITAU), b) focused program on positive affect promotion + ITAU c) mindfulness + ITAU or d) ITAU. The intervention format will be one face to face session and four ICTs on-line modules. Patients will be diagnosed with MINI psychiatric interview. Main outcome will be PHQ-9 score. They will be also assessed by SF-12 Health Survey, Client Service Receipt Inventory, EuroQoL-5D questionnaire, Positive and Negative Affect Scale, Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Pemberton Happiness Index. Patients will be assessed at baseline, post, 6 and 12 post-treatment months. An intention to treat and per protocol analysis will be performed.
Discussion
Low-intensity psychological interventions applied by Information and Communication Technologies have been not used before in Spain and could be an efficacious and cost-effective therapeutic option for depression treatment. The strength of the study is that it is the first multicenter controlled randomized clinical trial of three low intensity and self-guided interventions applied by ICTs (healthy lifestyle psychoeducational program; focused program on positive affect promotion and brief intervention based on mindfulness) in Primary Care settings.
Trial registration
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN82388279. Registered 16 April 2014.
Tibetans in the refugee communities in Northern India are exposed to both traditional Tibetan and Western medicine. For Tibetans suffering from arthritis (or <ce:italic>trung-bo</ce:italic>), the Tibetan treatment was compared with the Western treatment in an open randomized controlled trial. On a significance level of 0.0005, this trial demonstrated that for these Tibetans, their indigenous treatment worked better than the Western treatment for improved limb mobility.
Reviews a broad range of evidence indicating that school-based prevention and youth development interventions are most beneficial when they simultaneously enhance students' personal and social assets and improve the quality of the environments in which students are educated. Asserts that school-based prevention programming--based on coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning--should be fundamental to preK-12 education. (Contains references.) (SM)
After describing social-emotional learning, provides a framework for implementing an effective program that includes, for example, building connections between students and their schools, involving families and communities as partners. Describes three exemplary social and emotional learning programs for grades K-6: Caring School Community, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), and Skills, Opportunities and Recognition (SOAR). (PKP)
The main objective of this study was to investigate the concurrent role of multiple antecedents of social competence in a group of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
<p>xxv, 288 p. : ill.</p>
Bring a Sensory Garden to life in a structured therapeutic horticulture program!Intergenerational gardening programs bring the generations together. This book presents a tested, hands-on, easy-to-use activity plan that benefits the development of relationships between adults over 70 and school-age children. It shows how to limit frustration for both groups, how to plan activities that are functional and non-contrived, and how to assure that the interaction between elders and children is rewarding and pleasant for both. The activities rely on inexpensive, readily available tools and resources available throughout the growing season.While other books have discussed designing a Sensory Garden for people with disabilities, Generations Gardening Together applies the Sensory Garden design to a specific population, with a focus on the human senses that are stimulated by the garden. This unique sourcebook shows you, step-by-step, how a Sensory Garden can come alive in a structured therapeutic horticulture program. Generations Gardening Together shows how to create a Sensory Garden that will stimulate young and old gardeners alike. It outlines a six-week program curriculum that has been used and developed over ten years to use gardening as a program to bring generations together. You’ll learn therapeutic techniques that benefit elders by promoting self-esteem, creating feelings of pride, competence, and satisfaction—both from creating a garden and through passing on their knowledge and wisdom to the younger generation, inspiring them to use both their long-term and short-term memory skills, increasing physical stimulation, and providing the comfort of familiar plants and their aromas, which can trigger memories of people, places, and vocations. The activities in the book also benefit children through the establishment of a safe environment where people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can come together—an ideal social situation in which youth can seek the wisdom of elders. Children learn important lessons about accountability, nurturing, and responsibility, for working in a garden teaches youth about life, death, hope, patience, and beauty.Each activity session described in Generations Gardening Together includes the following information: title—describes the content of the program general statement of purpose—identifies the intent of the program goal(s)—outlines the expected outcome(s) of the activity program procedures—provides a detailed description of each step and the order of the program’s activities evaluation—includes what and how therapeutic program goals are to be measured and recorded materials and equipment—identifies all the necessary equipment and supplies needed to facilitate the program activityThis important resource shows how to provide appropriate (separate) orientation to seniors and children, what to emphasize and what to avoid in creating a program in your community, how to create garden themes that reflect the interests of the participants (ethnic foods, bird and butterfly gardens, planting to attract wildlife, etc.), how to decide what activities are appropriate for the developmental level of the participants, and much more. Generations Gardening Together is an essential resource for therapeutic recreation specialists, occupational therapists, therapeutic horticulture professionals, activity coordinators, master gardeners, and anyone working in an environment where elders and children come together.
Since its first publication in English in 1954, The Gift, Marcel Mauss's groundbreaking study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure, has been acclaimed as a classic among anthropology texts.A brilliant example of the comparative method, The Gift presents the first systematic study of the custom—widespread in primitive societies from ancient Rome to present-day Melanesia—of exchanging gifts. The gift is a perfect example of what Mauss calls a total social phenomenon, since it involves legal, economic, moral, religious, aesthetic, and other dimensions. He sees the gift exchange as related to individuals and groups as much as to the objects themselves, and his analysis calls into question the social conventions and economic systems that had been taken for granted for so many years. In a modern translation, introduced by distinguished anthropologist Mary Douglas, The Gift is essential reading for students of social anthropology and sociology.
This article deals with the role that religion has played in dealing with environmental issues. For many years, environmental issues were considered to be the concern of scientists, lawyers, and policy makers. Now the ethical dimensions of the environmental crisis are becoming more evident. Until recently religious communities have been so absorbed in internal sectarian affairs that they were unaware of the magnitude of the environmental crisis at hand. In this article, the authors present what religious leaders and local communities from different countries are doing regarding environmental issues.
Stress is a common occurrence in many chronically ill patients, and researchers are calling for cost‐effective stress‐reduction interventions. Meditation techniques have demonstrated a host of benefits for chronically ill patients. The present study examined the effects of a 6‐week Yoga Nidra meditation programme on perceived stress in multiple sclerosis and cancer patients. Overall stress was significantly reduced over the course of the programme.
Arthralgia affects postmenopausal breast cancer survivors (BCSs) receiving aromatase inhibitors (AIs). This study aims to establish the feasibility of studying the impact of yoga on objective functional outcomes, pain, and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) for AI-associated arthralgia (AIAA). Postmenopausal women with stage I to III breast cancer who reported AIAA were enrolled in a single-arm pilot trial. A yoga program was provided twice a week for 8 weeks. The Functional Reach (FR) and Sit and Reach (SR) were evaluated as primary outcomes. Pain, as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), self-reported Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS), and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) were secondary outcomes. Paired t tests were used for analysis, and 90% provided data for assessment at the end of the intervention. Participants experienced significant improvement in balance, as measured by FR, and flexibility, as measured by SR. The PSFS improved from 4.55 to 7.21, and HR-QOL measured by FACT-B also improved; both P < .05. The score for the Pain Severity subscale of the BPI reduced. No adverse events nor development or worsening of lymphedema was observed. In all, 80% of participants adhered to the home program. Preliminary data suggest that yoga may reduce pain and improve balance and flexibility in BCSs with AIAA. A randomized controlled trial is needed to establish the definitive efficacy of yoga for objective functional improvement in BCSs related to AIAA.
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