Improve Mental Health in the Elderly with Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“The interconnectedness of mind and body lies at the heart of mindfulness and this makes it highly relevant to older people who are more likely to experience physical health problems with associated psychological issues such as reduced mobility and depression. It is thought that mindfulness can be particularly empowering to older people as it focuses on abilities rather than difficulties which may help older people to feel more engaged in decisions about their care.” – MyAgingParent.com
Human life is one of constant change. We revel in our increases in physical and mental capacities during development, but regret their decline during aging. As we age, there are systematic progressive declines in every system in the body, the brain included. This includes our mental abilities and results in impairments in memory, attention, and problem solving ability. It is inevitable and cannot be avoided. Aging also results in changes in mental health. Depression is very common in the elderly. The elderly cope with increasing loss of friends and family, deteriorating health, as well as concerns regarding finances on fixed incomes. All of these are legitimate sources of worry. In addition, many elderly experience withdrawal and isolation from social interactions. But, no matter how reasonable, the increased loneliness, worry and anxiety add extra stress that can impact on the elderly’s already deteriorating physical and psychological health.
Mindfulness appears to be effective for an array of physical and psychological issues that occur with aging. It appears to strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation. It has also been shown to be beneficial in slowing or delaying physical and mental decline with aging. and improve cognitive processes. It has also been shown to reduce anxiety, worry, and depression and improve overall mental health. Since the global population of the elderly is increasing at unprecedented rates, it is imperative to investigate safe and effective methods to slow physical and mental aging and improve mental health in the elderly.
In today’s Research News article “Meditation in Stressed Older Adults: Improvements in Self-Rated Mental Health Not Paralleled by Improvements in Cognitive Function or Physiological Measures.” (See summary below). Oken and colleagues recruited health elderly between the ages of 50-85 (average age = 60 years) who did not evidence cognitive decline and who were at least mildly stressed. They were randomly assigned to either receive 6 weeks of mindfulness meditation practice or to a wait-list control condition. Mindfulness meditation practice included one-on-one instruction in body scan, sitting meditation, and breathing exercises. The participants were measured before and after training for mindfulness, perceived stress, positive and negative emotions, neuroticism, fatigue, quality of life, self-efficacy, sleep, executive function, memory, attention, physiological vital signs, and salivary cortisol levels.
They found that the mindful meditation group in comparison to the wait-list group and the baseline measures showed significant reductions in negative emotions, neuroticism, and perceived stress following training and significant increases in mindfulness, vitality, self-efficacy, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Hence, mindfulness meditation produced significant improvements in the overall mental health of the participants, but did not alter physical health or cognitive abilities.
These are important results that suggest that mindfulness meditation practice produces major improvements in the mental health of the elderly. The participants, however, were relatively young elderly with an average age of 60 and only one participant over 75. They were all in good health and demonstrated no cognitive issues. Hence, the failure to demonstrate any effects of mindfulness meditation on the physical health or cognitive ability of this group may have been due to the fact that they were high functioning at the beginning making it difficult to produce further improvements. Regardless, the results clearly show large and important effects of mindfulness meditation on the overall mental health of these young elderly. This suggests that mindfulness meditation should be incorporated into the lives of the elderly to improve their psychological state during their declining years.
So, improve mental health in the elderly with mindfulness.
“Mindfulness practice has a definite positive impact on issues such as recurrent depression, stress, anxiety, chronic physical pain and loneliness. For elderly people, loneliness is a major risk factor for health problems-such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s. Mindfulness meditation training can be used as a novel approach for reducing loneliness and the risk of disease. Research suggests that mindfulness meditation training is a promising intervention for improving the health of older adults.” – Bláthnait Ní Mhurchú
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Oken, B.S., Wahbeh, H., Goodrich, E. et al. Meditation in Stressed Older Adults: Improvements in Self-Rated Mental Health Not Paralleled by Improvements in Cognitive Function or Physiological Measures. Mindfulness (2017) 8: 627. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0640-7
Abstract
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 6-week MM intervention or a waitlist control. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline and 2 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. One hundred twenty-eight 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 waitlist 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.