The article focuses on the study which aims to develop an informed consent process of Tibetan traditional medicine through a randomized placebo-controlled trial in Lhasa, China. The study reveals a process that enables the U.S. and Tibetan research team in meeting their ethical and logistical challenges, and examines the differences between the outcomes. Moreover, a step-by-step process on how participants would react to the research and informed consent process were presented.
Mindfulness based therapy is a useful self help technique. This case study shows how it helped one patient to recover from anxiety after giving up alcohol
Waiting in the Diagnostic Emergency Center (DEC), a busy psychiatric emergency room, can be a stressful and anxiety-producing experience in and of itself. The authors examined the effectiveness of interventions such as therapeutic breathing exercises and music listening on reducing perceived stress levels of clients and visitors in such a setting. These interventions were separately conducted for 30 min once per week over a period of four months. Effectiveness of the breathing and music interventions was measured through a voluntary survey. This survey measured pre- and post-intervention stress levels through self-report on a 10-point Liken scale. The interventions were shown to reduce median stress levels by two to three points on a 10-point scale, reaching statistical significance at the 97% confidence level with a medium to large effect size. The project demonstrated that it was possible to develop music and breathing interventions so they can be utilized in the DEC as well as other branches of our hospital system, providing increased support and comfort to our clients and visitors during their times of crisis. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Incarcerated women enter the prison setting with remarkable histories of trauma, mental health and substance abuse issues. Given the stress of incarceration and separation from their children, families, and significant others, it is not surprising that many women experience increased anxiety, depression, and problems with sleep. Due to these negative outcomes, it is imperative to find efficient non-pharmacological interventions. This pilot study examined the impact of a 12-week mindfulness based program on the stress, anxiety, depression and sleep of women with a total of 33 completing the study. In one group, women's perceived stress, anxiety and depression were all significantly lower following the intervention compared to prior to the intervention. Challenges with implementing the pilot study are addressed. Despite challenges and limitations, the low-cost non-pharmacological intervention has potential for a reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Incarcerated women enter the prison setting with remarkable histories of trauma, mental health and substance abuse issues. Given the stress of incarceration and separation from their children, families, and significant others, it is not surprising that many women experience increased anxiety, depression, and problems with sleep. Due to these negative outcomes, it is imperative to find efficient non-pharmacological interventions. This pilot study examined the impact of a 12-week mindfulness based program on the stress, anxiety, depression and sleep of women with a total of 33 completing the study. In one group, women's perceived stress, anxiety and depression were all significantly lower following the intervention compared to prior to the intervention. Challenges with implementing the pilot study are addressed. Despite challenges and limitations, the low-cost non-pharmacological intervention has potential for a reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Procedures of Informed Consent are considered a high priority for international biomedical research. However, informed consent protocols are not necessarily transferable across cultural, national or ethnic groups. Recent debates identify the need for balancing ethical universals with practical and local conditions and paying attention to questions of cultural competence when it comes to the Informed Consent process for clinical biomedical research. This article reports on the results of a two-year effort to establish a culturally appropriate Informed Consent process for biomedical research in the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. A team of Tibetan and American researchers, physicians, health professionals and medical anthropologists conducted the research. The Informed Consent was specifically for undertaking a triple-blind, double placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial of a Tibetan medicine compared with Misoprostol for reducing postpartum blood loss. The findings suggest greater need for flexibility and cooperation in establishing Informed Consent protocols across cultures and nations.
This investigation examined the interaction of disengagement coping with HIV/AIDS-related stigma and mindful-based attention and awareness in regard to anxiety and depressive symptoms among people with HIV/AIDS. There was a significant interaction in regard to anxiety symptoms. Higher levels of disengagement coping paired with lower levels of mindful-based attention and awareness was related to the greatest degrees of anxiety symptoms, while lower levels of disengagement coping paired with higher levels of mindful-based attention and awareness was related to the lowest levels of anxiety symptoms. Although the interaction for depressive symptoms was not significant, a similar pattern of results was observed.
This investigation examined the interaction of disengagement coping with HIV/AIDS-related stigma and mindful-based attention and awareness in regard to anxiety and depressive symptoms among people with HIV/AIDS. There was a significant interaction in regard to anxiety symptoms. Higher levels of disengagement coping paired with lower levels of mindful-based attention and awareness was related to the greatest degrees of anxiety symptoms, while lower levels of disengagement coping paired with higher levels of mindful-based attention and awareness was related to the lowest levels of anxiety symptoms. Although the interaction for depressive symptoms was not significant, a similar pattern of results was observed.
"The first comprehensive overview of holistic education's history, conceptions, practices, and research, this Handbook provides an up-to-date picture of the field as it currently exists around the globe. Specifically, it examines the field's theoretical and historical foundations; offers examples of holistic education in practice with regard to schools, programs, and pedagogies; presents research methods used in holistic education; outlines new and emerging research in the field; and examines potential areas for future program development and research. This volume is a must-have resource for researchers and practitioners and an essential foundational text for courses in the field"--
Despite increasing awareness and acceptance of sustainability, relatively little is known about the motivations, viewpoints and experiences of people who choose to lead extremely sustainable lives. Through in-depth interviews with seven sustainability leaders, residing in an ecovillage or traditional suburban community in south-east Queensland in Australia, this qualitative research explores their sustainability motivations, experiences and whether residing in a sustainable ecovillage makes leading a sustainable life easier. All shared a strong commitment to sustainability from early childhood and enjoyed being early adopters and leaders in sustainability, explaining that they felt this leadership role was ‘their calling’. Ecovillage residents felt living there made it easier to stay motivated and maintain a sustainable lifestyle due to the support and shared knowledge from ‘like-minded’ neighbours, whilst participants residing in a traditional suburban community valued not being bound by a community code and the challenge of leading a sustainable lifestyle in a ‘non-sustainable world’.
<p>This article attempts to dispel the myths that Lhasa was a secret, isolated environment. Instead, the article argues that Lhasa was a center for much political and economic activity. (Mark Premo-Hopkins 2004-05-06)</p>
<i>Introduction</i>: To determine the outcomes of vaginal deliveries in three study hospitals in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), People's Republic of China (PRC), at high altitude (3650 m). <i>Methods</i>: Prospective observational study of 1121 vaginal deliveries. <i>Results</i>: Pre-eclampsia/gestational hypertension (PE/GH) was the most common maternal complication 18.9% (<i>n</i> = 212), followed by postpartum hemorrhage (blood loss ≥ 500 ml) 13.4%. There were no maternal deaths. Neonatal complications included: low birth weight (10.2%), small for gestational age (13.7%), pre-term delivery (4.1%) and low Apgar (3.7%). There were 11 stillbirths (9.8/1000 live births) and 19 early neonatal deaths (17/1000 live births). <i>Conclusion</i>: This is the largest study of maternal and newborn outcomes in Tibet. It provides information on the outcomes of institutional vaginal births among women delivering infants at high altitude. There was a higher incidence of PE/GH and low birth weight; rates of PPH were not increased compared to those at lower altitudes.
<p>Abstract This study focused on 21 educators who have been meditating for an average of 4 years. These educators, who were mostly teachers, had been introduced to meditation in a graduate course in education. They chose to continue meditation after the class was completed. The study examined the nature of their meditation practice, and the effects that the participants perceived in their personal and professional lives. Almost all the participants indicated that they felt meditation had made a significant difference in their lives. The most cited benefit was feeling calmer and more centred. Four of the teachers had also introduced meditation to their students. The study indicated that holistic approaches to learning can be successfully introduced in a traditional academic setting</p>
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This study focused on 21 educators who have been meditating for an average of 4 years. These educators, who were mostly teachers, had been introduced to meditation in a graduate course in education. They chose to continue meditation after the class was completed. The study examined the nature of their meditation practice, and the effects that the participants perceived in their personal and professional lives. Almost all the participants indicated that they felt meditation had made a significant difference in their lives. The most cited benefit was feeling calmer and more centered. Four of the teachers had also introduced meditation to their students. The study indicated that holistic approaches to learning can be successfully introduced in a traditional academic setting.
This study focused on 21 educators who have been meditating for an average of 4 years. These educators, who were mostly teachers, had been introduced to meditation in a graduate course in education. They chose to continue meditation after the class was completed. The study examined the nature of their meditation practice, and the effects that the participants perceived in their personal and professional lives. Almost all the participants indicated that they felt meditation had made a significant difference in their lives. The most cited benefit was feeling calmer and more centered. Four of the teachers had also introduced meditation to their students. The study indicated that holistic approaches to learning can be successfully introduced in a traditional academic setting.
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Contemplative science has documented a plethora of intrapersonal benefits stemming from meditation, includ-ing increases in gray matter density (Hölzel, Carmody, et al., 2011), positive affect (Moyer et al., 2011), and improvement in various mental-health outcomes (Hölzel, Lazar, et al., 2011). Strikingly, however, much less is known about the interpersonal impact of meditation. Although Buddhist teachings suggest that increases in compassionate responding should be a primary outcome of meditation (Davidson & Harrington, 2002), little scien-tific evidence supports this conjecture. Even as scientists have begun to examine the effects of meditation on pro-social action, the conclusions that can be drawn with respect to compassion have been limited by designs that lack real-time person-to-person interactions centered on suffering. Previous work, for example, has utilized medi-tators’ self-reported intentions and motivations to behave in supportive manners toward other individuals (e.g., Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008) and com-puter-based economic games requiring cooperation (e.g., Leiberg, Klimecki, & Singer, 2011; Weng et al., 2013) to assess altruistic action. Such methods have suggested that meditation may increase generalized prosocial respond-ing, but have not clearly and objectively gauged responses meant solely to mitigate the suffering of other individuals.To address this gap, we utilized a design in which individuals were confronted with a person in pain in an ecologically valid setting. If, as suggested by Buddhist theorizing, meditation enhances compassionate respond-ing, participants who have completed a brief meditation course should act to relieve such a person’s suffering more frequently than those who have not completed the course.
To determine if mindfulness meditation (MM) in older adults improves cognition and, secondarily, if MM improves mental health and physiology, 134 at least mildly stressed 50-85 year olds were randomized to a six-week MM intervention or a waitlist control. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline and two months later at Visit 2. The primary outcome measure was an executive function/attentional measure (flanker task). Other outcome measures included additional cognitive assessments, salivary cortisol, respiratory rate, heart rate variability, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness (NEO) personality traits, and SF-36 health-related quality of life. 128 participants completed the study though Visit 2 assessments. There was no significant change in the primary or other cognitive outcome measures. Even after statistical adjustment for multiple outcomes, self-rated measures related to negative affect and stress were all significantly improved in the MM intervention compared to wait-list group (PANAS-negative, CESD, PSS, and SF-36 health-related quality of life Vitality and Mental Health Component). The SF-36 Mental Health Component score improved more than the minimum clinically important difference. There were also significant changes in personality traits such as Neuroticism. Changes in positive affect were not observed. There were no group differences in salivary cortisol, or heart rate variability. These moderate sized improvements in self-rated measures were not paralleled by improvements in cognitive function or physiological measures. Potential explanations for this discrepancy in stress-related outcomes are discussed to help improve future studies.
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