BackgroundDialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) skills have become increasingly used to treat several psychiatric conditions, including major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of an intervention that combines emotion regulation and mindfulness skills of DBT to prevent depression relapse/recurrence.
Methods
A total of 75 individuals (79% females; mean age, 52 years) with a diagnosis of MDD in complete or partial remission were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated either to an intervention combining emotion regulation and mindfulness skills (ER + M group, n = 37) or to a psychoeducative program (n = 38). After the 10-week treatment period, participants were followed for 1 year. Analyses were run in per-protocol (PP) and intention-to-treat (ITT) samples. The primary outcome measure was time to depression relapse/recurrence.
Results
ER + M training was not more effective than the control intervention in preventing depression relapse. However, PP and ITT analyses showed that participants trained in ER + M presented a significant reduction in depressive symptoms and overall psychopathology. Based on the PP and ITT analyses, neither of the interventions were related with an increase in dispositional mindfulness.
Conclusions
More studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of ER + M to decrease depressive symptoms and overall psychopathology.
BackgroundDialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) skills have become increasingly used to treat several psychiatric conditions, including major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of an intervention that combines emotion regulation and mindfulness skills of DBT to prevent depression relapse/recurrence.
Methods
A total of 75 individuals (79% females; mean age, 52 years) with a diagnosis of MDD in complete or partial remission were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated either to an intervention combining emotion regulation and mindfulness skills (ER + M group, n = 37) or to a psychoeducative program (n = 38). After the 10-week treatment period, participants were followed for 1 year. Analyses were run in per-protocol (PP) and intention-to-treat (ITT) samples. The primary outcome measure was time to depression relapse/recurrence.
Results
ER + M training was not more effective than the control intervention in preventing depression relapse. However, PP and ITT analyses showed that participants trained in ER + M presented a significant reduction in depressive symptoms and overall psychopathology. Based on the PP and ITT analyses, neither of the interventions were related with an increase in dispositional mindfulness.
Conclusions
More studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of ER + M to decrease depressive symptoms and overall psychopathology.
Several letters to the editor are presented in response to the article on the research on collaborative event ethnography (CEE).
The authors examined the time course of affective responding associated with different affective dimensions--anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression--using an emotion-modulated startle paradigm. Participants high on 1 of these 3 dimensions and nonsymptomatic control participants viewed a series of affective pictures with acoustic startle probes presented before, during, and after the stimuli. All groups exhibited startle potentiation during unpleasant pictures and in anticipation of both pleasant and unpleasant pictures. Compared with control participants, symptomatic participants exhibited sustained potentiation following the offset of unpleasant stimuli and a lack of blink attenuation during and following pleasant stimuli. Common and unique patterns of affective responses in the 3 types of mood symptoms are discussed.
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The study of emotional communication has focused predominantly on the facial and vocal channels but has ignored the tactile channel. Participants in the current study were allowed to touch an unacquainted partner on the whole body to communicate distinct emotions. Of interest was how accurately the person being touched decoded the intended emotions without seeing the tactile stimulation. The data indicated that anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy were decoded at greater than chance levels, as well as happiness and sadness, 2 emotions that have not been shown to be communicated by touch to date. Moreover, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to the study of emotion-related communication.
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PURPOSE:Poorly managed stress leads to detrimental physical and psychological consequences that have implications for individual and community health. Evidence indicates that U.S. adults predominantly use unhealthy strategies for stress management. This study examines the impact of a community-based mindfulness training program on stress reduction.
DESIGN:
This study used a one-group pretest-posttest design.
SETTING:
The study took place at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center in urban Los Angeles.
SUBJECTS:
A sample of N = 127 community residents (84% Caucasian, 74% female) were included in the study.
INTERVENTION:
Participants received mindfulness training through the Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) for Daily Living I.
MEASURES:
Mindfulness, self-compassion, and perceived stress were measured at baseline and postintervention.
ANALYSIS:
Paired-sample t-tests were used to test for changes in outcome measures from baseline to postintervention. Hierarchical regression analysis was fit to examine whether change in self-reported mindfulness and self-compassion predicted postintervention perceived stress scores.
RESULTS:
There were statistically significant improvements in self-reported mindfulness (t = -10.67, p < .001, d = .90), self-compassion (t = -8.50, p < .001, d = .62), and perceived stress (t = 9.28, p < .001, d = -.78) at postintervention. Change in self-compassion predicted postintervention perceived stress (β = -.44, t = -5.06, p < .001), but change in mindfulness did not predict postintervention perceived stress (β = -.04, t = -.41, p = .68).
CONCLUSION:
These results indicate that a community-based mindfulness training program can lead to reduced levels of psychological stress. Mindfulness training programs such as MAPs may offer a promising approach for general public health promotion through improving stress management in the urban community.
BACKGROUND: Rapid growth of mobile technologies has resulted in a proliferation of lifestyle-oriented mobile phone apps. However, most do not have a theoretical framework and few have been developed using a community-based participatory research approach. A community academic team will develop a theory-based, culturally tailored, mobile-enabled, Web-based app-the Mobile Cancer Prevention App (mCPA)-to promote adherence to dietary and physical activity guidelines. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to develop mCPA content with input from breast cancer survivors. METHODS: Members of SISTAAH (Survivors Involving Supporters to Take Action in Advancing Health) Talk (N=12), treated for Stages I-IIIc breast cancer for less than 1 year, 75 years of age or younger, and English-speaking and writing, will be recruited to participate in the study. To develop the app content, breast cancer survivors will engage with researchers in videotaped and audiotaped sessions, including (1) didactic instructions with goals for, benefits of, and strategies to enhance dietary intake and physical activity, (2) guided discussions for setting individualized goals, monitoring progress, and providing or receiving feedback, (3) experiential nutrition education through cooking demonstrations, and (4) interactive physical activity focused on walking, yoga, and strength training. Qualitative (focus group discussions and key informant interviews) and quantitative (sensory evaluation) methods will be used to evaluate the participatory process and outcomes. RESULTS: Investigators and participants anticipate development of an acceptable (frequency and duration of usage) feasible (structure, ease of use, features), and accessible mobile app available for intervention testing in early 2017. CONCLUSIONS: Depending on the availability of research funding, mCPA testing, which will be initiated in Miami, will be extended to Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
BACKGROUND: Rapid growth of mobile technologies has resulted in a proliferation of lifestyle-oriented mobile phone apps. However, most do not have a theoretical framework and few have been developed using a community-based participatory research approach. A community academic team will develop a theory-based, culturally tailored, mobile-enabled, Web-based app-the Mobile Cancer Prevention App (mCPA)-to promote adherence to dietary and physical activity guidelines. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to develop mCPA content with input from breast cancer survivors. METHODS: Members of SISTAAH (Survivors Involving Supporters to Take Action in Advancing Health) Talk (N=12), treated for Stages I-IIIc breast cancer for less than 1 year, 75 years of age or younger, and English-speaking and writing, will be recruited to participate in the study. To develop the app content, breast cancer survivors will engage with researchers in videotaped and audiotaped sessions, including (1) didactic instructions with goals for, benefits of, and strategies to enhance dietary intake and physical activity, (2) guided discussions for setting individualized goals, monitoring progress, and providing or receiving feedback, (3) experiential nutrition education through cooking demonstrations, and (4) interactive physical activity focused on walking, yoga, and strength training. Qualitative (focus group discussions and key informant interviews) and quantitative (sensory evaluation) methods will be used to evaluate the participatory process and outcomes. RESULTS: Investigators and participants anticipate development of an acceptable (frequency and duration of usage) feasible (structure, ease of use, features), and accessible mobile app available for intervention testing in early 2017. CONCLUSIONS: Depending on the availability of research funding, mCPA testing, which will be initiated in Miami, will be extended to Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
BACKGROUND: With high rates of obesity, low levels of physical activity (PA), and lack of adherence to physical activity guidelines (PAGs) among African American (AA) breast cancer survivors (BCSs), culturally appropriate interventions that address barriers to participation in PA are needed. METHODS: To develop intervention content, members of an AA breast cancer support group participated in four 1-hour focus group discussions (related to the barriers to PA, strategies for overcoming them, and intervention content), which were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed. RESULTS: The support group collaborated with researchers to construct the Physical Activity Intervention Developed (PAID) to Prevent Breast Cancer, a multi-component (educational sessions; support group discussions; and structured, moderately intensive walking, strength training, and yoga), facilitated, 24-week program focused on reducing multi-level barriers to PA that promote benefits ('pay off') of meeting PAGs. CONCLUSIONS: Community engagement fostered trust, promoted mutuality, built collaboration, and expanded capacity of AA BCSs to participate in developing an intervention addressing individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community barriers to PA.
Research has shown that members of racial and ethnic minority groups experience greater cumulative stress burden. Because a high cumulative stress burden increases the likelihood of mental health disorders, community health coaches trained in techniques to help community members manage stress more effectively could be an important step toward improving mental health in minority populations. As a pilot project, we invited individuals from organizations representing five minority populations to receive training in Mind–Body Bridging (MBB), a mindfulness approach that teaches skills to calm the mind and relax the body. Participants included community health coaches, organizational leaders, and community members. Surveys of quality of life and self-efficacy were conducted at the beginning and completion of training, and at 9 months following completion. A focus group was also held at training completion to solicit perceptions of the usefulness of MBB among the participants’ respective communities. Eleven participants completed the training. Overall, participants reported regular use of MBB techniques to manage their own stress and showed some moderate improvements in both quality of life and self-efficacy. MBB was generally perceived to be a useful tool for community health coaches, with perceived strengths including the ease of teaching it to others and increased ability to empower community members to handle their own problems more efficiently. Next steps include longitudinal tracking of the coaches’ use of MBB as a coaching tool and monitoring outcomes among the community members receiving the coaching.
OBJECTIVE: PADMA 28 is a multicompound preparation of 20 herbs, calcium sulphate, and camphor, derived from Tibetan medicine. It is usually used in the treatment of peripheral circulatory disorders, accompanied by the symptoms tingling, formication, heaviness and tenseness in arms and legs, numbness in hands and feet, and cramps in the calf. Recently, the question of whether appropriate preparations of PADMA 28 also exhibit antibacterial and antimycotic activity has often been raised. As there are as yet no experimental findings that answer this question, an in vitro study was carried out. In a parallel survey we investigated the antimicrobial properties of 5 herbal drugs which are commonly used in the traditional European folk medicine for the topical treatment of mild skin infections, wounds and eczematous skin lesions.METHODS: The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) of alcohol-based (tinctures) and aqueous (teas) herbal drug preparations were determined in vitro by a broth microdilution method for 5 Gram-positive and 5 Gram-negative bacteria, as well as the yeast Candida albicans.
RESULTS: The aqueous and alcohol-based PADMA 28 preparations as well as the corresponding preparations of the European herbal drugs showed an antibacterial effect against Gram-positive bacteria in vitro. These bacteria revealed a somewhat higher sensitivity to the teas prepared from the European herbal drugs (MIC: 1.3-20.0 mg/ml) than to the aqueous preparations of PADMA 28 (MIC: 5.0-40.0 mg/ml). The better antibacterial activity of the European herbal drugs is probably based on their relatively high amount of tanning agents. On the other hand, all tested plant preparations inhibited not at all or only insufficiently the growth of the Gram-negative bacteria tested and that of Candida albicans. The ethanolic PADMA 28 tinctures showed an improved inhibitory effect on the Gram-positive bacteria (MIC: 0.38-1.51% tincture or 0.38-1.51 mg PADMA 28/ml) compared with the aqueous preparations; this effect is comparable to the ethanolic tinctures of the tested European herbal drugs (MIC: 0.4-1.6/3.2% tincture or 0.4-1.6/3.2 mg herbal drug/ml).
CONCLUSION: All tested tea preparations and alcoholic tinctures of PADMA 28 as well as those of the selected European herbal drugs exhibited evident antibacterial effects against Gram-positive bacteria in vitro. On the other hand, except for Klebsiella pneumoniae, all Gram-negative bacteria tested and the yeast Candida albicans were insensitive against the different aqueous and alcohol-based plant extracts.
We studied the descriptions of saccharated preparations found in traditional medical books and reported the following points. 1. Among the preparations described in medical books in Uigurian traditional medicine, the most numerous are saccharated preparations. These are often used to ripen and detoxicate malignant body fluids. 2. The contents of ancient writings found in Turfan in Uiguru relate not only to Greek medicine but also to Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine. The application of saccharated preparations described in these writings is similar to that mentioned above. 3. The most important book of Tibetan medicines, "Sibu Yidian (The Four Medical Tantras)" describes saccharated preparations as making viscous body fluids ripe and improving their passage. The same book also regards them as mitigative. 4. "Caraka samnita" and "Sushruta samhita" show that honey and sugar are used separately in most cases of Ayurvedic medicine and that they expel malignant body fluids. 5. According to books of Greek medicine, honey is often added to extracts of herbal medicine at the time of taking it, and is used to ripen, detoxicate, and expel malignant body fluids. 6. The origin of saccharated preparations seems to be related to similary humoral theories in Greek, Arab, Indian, and Tibetan medicine.
<p>It has been said that the tridosha theory in Ayurveda originated from the theory of the three elements of the universe. The names of these three doshas, which are roughly equivalent to humour, are vata (wind), pitta (bile), and Kapha (phlegm), corresponding to the three elements of the universe: air, fire, and water. On the other hand, Buddhist medicine which has a close relation to Ayurveda is based on the theory of the four elements of the universe which includes the earth as well as the three elements mentioned above. Greek medicine on the other hand, is founded on the theory of the four humours, i.e. blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Furthermore, even in Ayurveda, like in "Sushruta Samhita", the theory of the four humours can be found: this includes the above-mentioned tridosha plus blood as the fourth humour. "Timaios" by Plato also mentions this. We compared these various theories and pointed out that the tridosha theory had its origin in the theory of the four elements of the universe. The process of the formation of the tridosha theory is considered as follows: (1) "Earth" was segregated from the four elements of the universe owing to its solid properties, and was rearranged into the seven elements of the body called "dhatu"; and the other three elements. "water", "fire", and "air", were integrated as the tridosha theory, namely, the theory of the three humours, owing to their properties of fluid; (2) "Blood", assigned to the element of "earth", was segregated from the tridosha because "blood" was considered to be comprised of the properties of every humour without having its own peculiar properties. Therefore, the diseases caused by deranged "blood" were regarded as an aggregate disease caused by the other three deranged humours. Then the category of the disease, caused by deranged "earth", did not appear.</p>
Self-compassion, mindfulness, and psychological inflexibility, constructs associated with mindfulness-based interventions, have demonstrated associations with multiple aspects of psychological health. However, a very limited body of research has analyzed the relative predictive strength among mindfulness-related constructs. Regression analyses were performed to determine the common and unique variance in psychological health predicted by these constructs and to compare their relative predictive strength in a nonclinical sample of 147 undergraduate students at a Mid-Atlantic university. Consistent with previous research, self-compassion demonstrated a stronger ability than single-factor mindfulness to predict variance in psychological health. However, results were mixed when a multifaceted measure of mindfulness was considered. Self-compassion predicted greater variance than multifaceted mindfulness when prediction was based on one total score, but not when individual subscales were analyzed. Psychological inflexibility predicted greater variance than did self-compassion for negative indicators of psychological health. Results suggest that self-compassion and psychological inflexibility may demonstrate greater associations with psychological health than single scores of mindfulness and that important predictive power is lost, particularly from the nonreactivity facet, when multifaceted mindfulness is consolidated into a single score.
Parochial schools are assumed to provide better social and academic experiences; however, few studies account for selection bias when comparing with public schools. This study contrasted public versus parochial schools using propensity score matching across a range of outcomes (e.g., perceptions of school, emotional symptoms, substance use, bullying). Using a sample of 58 public and 5 parochial high schools, the nonmatched analyses suggested a significant advantage for parochial schools students (e.g., better on 23 of 32 indicators). However, the propensity score matched analyses revealed nine differences (e.g., weapon carrying, smoking), two of which (i.e., stress and cyberbullying) favored public schools. While at first glance parochial schools generally appear to be healthier and safer learning environments, accounting for selection bias, the gap was narrowed. Students in parochial schools may struggle with issues related to social, emotional, and behavioral health risk, and thus prevention programs should also be implemented in these settings.
This research examined whether cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness interventions that target responses to chronic stress, pain, and depression reduce pain and improve the quality of everyday life for adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The 144 RA participants were clustered into groups of 6–10 participants and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: cognitive behavioral therapy for pain (P); mindfulness meditation and emotion regulation therapy (M); or education-only group (E), which served as an attention placebo control. The authors took a multimethod approach, employing daily diaries and laboratory assessment of pain and mitogen-stimulated levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a proinflammatory cytokine. Participants receiving P showed the greatest Pre to Post improvement in self-reported pain control and reductions in the IL-6; both P and M groups showed more improvement in coping efficacy than did the E group. The relative value of the treatments varied as a function of depression history. RA patients with recurrent depression benefited most from M across several measures, including negative and positive affect and physicians' ratings of joint tenderness, indicating that the emotion regulation aspects of that treatment were most beneficial to those with chronic depressive features.
The effect of pranayama a controlled breathing practice, on exercise tests was studied in athletes in two phases; sub-maximal and maximal exercise tests. At the end of phase I (one year) both the groups (control and experimental) achieved significantly higher work rate and reduction in oxygen consumption per unit work. There was a significant reduction in blood lactate and an increase in P/L ratio in the experimental group, at rest. At the end of phase II (two years), the oxygen consumption per unit work was found to be significantly reduced and the work rate significantly increased in the experimental group. Blood lactate decreased significantly at rest in the experimental group only. Pyruvate and pyruvate-lactate ratio increased significantly in both the groups after exercise and at rest in the experimental group. The results in both phases showed that the subjects who practised pranayama could achieve higher work rates with reduced oxygen consumption per unit work and without increase in blood lactate levels. The blood lactate levels were significantly low at rest.
Motion correction of fMRI data is a widely used step prior to data analysis. In this study, a comparison of the motion correction tools provided by several leading fMRI analysis software packages was performed, including AFNI, AIR, BrainVoyager, FSL, and SPM2. Comparisons were performed using data from typical human studies as well as phantom data. The identical reconstruction, preprocessing, and analysis steps were used on every data set, except that motion correction was performed using various configurations from each software package. Each package was studied using default parameters, as well as parameters optimized for speed and accuracy. Forty subjects performed a Go/No-go task (an event-related design that investigates inhibitory motor response) and an N-back task (a block-design paradigm investigating working memory). The human data were analyzed by extracting a set of general linear model (GLM)-derived activation results and comparing the effect of motion correction on thresholded activation cluster size and maximum t value. In addition, a series of simulated phantom data sets were created with known activation locations, magnitudes, and realistic motion. Results from the phantom data indicate that AFNI and SPM2 yield the most accurate motion estimation parameters, while AFNI's interpolation algorithm introduces the least smoothing. AFNI is also the fastest of the packages tested. However, these advantages did not produce noticeably better activation results in motion-corrected data from typical human fMRI experiments. Although differences in performance between packages were apparent in the human data, no single software package produced dramatically better results than the others. The "accurate" parameters showed virtually no improvement in cluster t values compared to the standard parameters. While the "fast" parameters did not result in a substantial increase in speed, they did not degrade the cluster results very much either. The phantom and human data indicate that motion correction can be a valuable step in the data processing chain, yielding improvements of up to 20% in the magnitude and up to 100% in the cluster size of detected activations, but the choice of software package does not substantially affect this improvement.
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AIM: To identify the medicine and search for new medicine resource at the molecular level, the ITS of "Zang Yin Chen"--Swertia mussotti and its adulterant species were sequenced.METHODS: The double-stranded DNA was amplified using PCR systems 9,600 kits and sequenced on an ABI 377 automated sequencer from both directions.
RESULTS: The ITS sequences of S. mussotti in different populations showed no variation. It has the unique ITS sequence and shows distinct difference from its adulterant species. In the phylogenetic tree based on the ITS data of S. mussotti and all vicarious species constructed by Paup, S. franchetiana and S. mussotti clustered together with high bootstrap support.
CONCLUSION: ITS sequences can be used for the molecular authentication between the S. mussotti and its adulterant species. S. franchetiana can be regarded as a new medicine resource of "Zhang Yin Chen".
Psychological stress is a major provocative factor of symptoms in chronic inflammatory conditions. In recent years, interest in addressing stress responsivity through meditation training in health-related domains has increased astoundingly, despite a paucity of evidence that reported benefits are specific to meditation practice. We designed the present study to rigorously compare an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention to a well-matched active control intervention, the Health Enhancement Program (HEP) in ability to reduce psychological stress and experimentally-induced inflammation. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used to induce psychological stress and inflammation was produced using topical application of capsaicin cream to forearm skin. Immune and endocrine measures of inflammation and stress were collected both before and after MBSR training. Results show those randomized to MBSR and HEP training had comparable post-training stress-evoked cortisol responses, as well as equivalent reductions in self-reported psychological distress and physical symptoms. However, MBSR training resulted in a significantly smaller post-stress inflammatory response compared to HEP, despite equivalent levels of stress hormones. These results suggest behavioral interventions designed to reduce emotional reactivity may be of therapeutic benefit in chronic inflammatory conditions. Moreover, mindfulness practice, in particular, may be more efficacious in symptom relief than the well-being promoting activities cultivated in the HEP program.
Psychological stress is a major provocative factor of symptoms in chronic inflammatory conditions. In recent years, interest in addressing stress responsivity through meditation training in health-related domains has increased astoundingly, despite a paucity of evidence that reported benefits are specific to meditation practice. We designed the present study to rigorously compare an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention to a well-matched active control intervention, the Health Enhancement Program (HEP) in ability to reduce psychological stress and experimentally-induced inflammation. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used to induce psychological stress and inflammation was produced using topical application of capsaicin cream to forearm skin. Immune and endocrine measures of inflammation and stress were collected both before and after MBSR training. Results show those randomized to MBSR and HEP training had comparable post-training stress-evoked cortisol responses, as well as equivalent reductions in self-reported psychological distress and physical symptoms. However, MBSR training resulted in a significantly smaller post-stress inflammatory response compared to HEP, despite equivalent levels of stress hormones. These results suggest behavioral interventions designed to reduce emotional reactivity may be of therapeutic benefit in chronic inflammatory conditions. Moreover, mindfulness practice, in particular, may be more efficacious in symptom relief than the well-being promoting activities cultivated in the HEP program.
Psychological stress is a major provocative factor of symptoms in chronic inflammatory conditions. In recent years, interest in addressing stress responsivity through meditation training in health-related domains has increased astoundingly, despite a paucity of evidence that reported benefits are specific to meditation practice. We designed the present study to rigorously compare an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention to a well-matched active control intervention, the Health Enhancement Program (HEP) in ability to reduce psychological stress and experimentally-induced inflammation. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used to induce psychological stress and inflammation was produced using topical application of capsaicin cream to forearm skin. Immune and endocrine measures of inflammation and stress were collected both before and after MBSR training. Results show those randomized to MBSR and HEP training had comparable post-training stress-evoked cortisol responses, as well as equivalent reductions in self-reported psychological distress and physical symptoms. However, MBSR training resulted in a significantly smaller post-stress inflammatory response compared to HEP, despite equivalent levels of stress hormones. These results suggest behavioral interventions designed to reduce emotional reactivity may be of therapeutic benefit in chronic inflammatory conditions. Moreover, mindfulness practice, in particular, may be more efficacious in symptom relief than the well-being promoting activities cultivated in the HEP program.
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BACKGROUND:This study tested the effectiveness of a computerized mindfulness-based cognitive therapy intervention compared with computerized pain management psychoeducation in a randomized study.
METHODS:
Using an intention-to-treat approach, 124 adult participants who reported experiencing pain that was unrelated to cancer and of at least 6 months duration were randomly assigned to computerized mindfulness-based cognitive therapy ("Mindfulness in Action" [MIA]) or pain management psychoeducation programs. Data were collected before and after the intervention and at 6-month follow-up.
RESULTS:
Participants in both groups showed equivalent change and significant improvements on measures of pain interference, pain acceptance, and catastrophizing from pretreatment to posttreatment and the improvements were maintained at follow-up. Average pain intensity also reduced from baseline to posttreatment for both groups, but was not maintained at follow-up. Participants in both groups reported increases in subjective well-being, these were more pronounced in the MIA than the pain management psychoeducation group. Participants in the MIA group also reported a greater reduction in pain "right now," and increases in their ability to manage emotions, manage stress, and enjoy pleasant events on completion of the intervention. The changes in ability to manage emotions and stressful events were maintained at follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results of the study provide evidence that although there were equivalent changes across outcomes of interest for participants in both conditions over time, the MIA program showed a number of unique benefits. However, the level of participant attrition in the study highlighted a need for further attention to participant engagement with online chronic pain programs.
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