Help Reduce Psychopathology with Severe Skin Conditions with Spirituality

psyjdc Leave a comment

Image may contain: one or more people and closeup

Help Reduce Psychopathology with Severe Skin Conditions with Spirituality

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Spiritual practices tend to improve coping skills and social support, foster feelings of optimism and hope, promote healthy behavior, reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, and encourage a sense of relaxation. By alleviating stressful feelings and promoting healing ones, spirituality can positively influence immune, cardiovascular (heart and blood vessels), hormonal, and nervous systems.” – University of Maryland Medical Center

 

Spirituality is often confused with being religious and attending services. Even though spiritual people often are religious, spirituality refers to a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, and it typically involves a search for meaning in life. It involves a subjective experience of a sacred dimension. People vary in their depth of spirituality. But It appears to be an almost universal human belief that there is something more to life than just the physical.

 

Even though spirituality refers to something metaphysical, it has consequences in the physical realm. In particular, spirituality has been found to be associated with better psychological and physical health. Spirituality has been shown to improve psychological well-being and mental health, particularly anxiety. Spirituality has been shown to be negatively associated with depression with the higher the level of spirituality the lower the level of depression. In addition, high levels of spirituality are associated with successful drug treatment for depression. This appears to lead to spirituality being negatively associated with suicidality with the higher the level of spirituality the lower the level of suicidality.

 

Spirituality appears to help the individual cope with adversity, with people who are high in spirituality less likely to be distressed following negative events. To some extent this results from the fact that spirituality appears to reduce the negative consequences of stress and thereby improve well-being. Individuals at the end of life with high levels of spirituality have significantly higher levels of well-being and are less likely to be depressed or suicidal. Spirituality has also been shown to be helpful in treatment for alcoholism and generally for substance abuse treatment and  relapse prevention. Spiritual meditation has also been shown to reduce the frequency of migraine headaches.

 

These findings lead to the conclusion that spirituality may help with the psychological responses to disease. In today’s Research News article “Spirituality and mood pathology in severe skin conditions: a prospective observational study.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1476015799089008/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4982877/

Unterrainer and colleagues studied the relationship of spirituality to the mental problems surrounding severe skin disease. They recruited patients with severe and potentially life threatening dermatological diseases of systemic sclerosis, lupus erythematosus, and early stages malignant melanoma. They measured spiritual well-being including hope immanent, forgiveness,  experiences of sense and meaning, religious well-being, general religiosity, connectedness, and hope transcendent. In addition, they measured a variety of psychiatric symptoms.

 

They found that hope for a better future, hope transcendent and forgiveness were the spirituality components that were most negatively associated with psychiatric symptoms, with high levels of hope and forgiveness associated with low levels of mental health issues. In general, the existential dimensions of spirituality were better predictors of low psychopathology than the religious dimensions of spirituality.

 

These results are interesting and suggest that spirituality is positively associated with the mental health of patients with severe dermatological diseases. Due to the fact that the study was correlational, it cannot be concluded that spirituality caused better mental health, or that better mental health caused spirituality, or some third factor was responsible for both. But, nevertheless, the findings clearly demonstrate that spirituality and mental health are positively related.

 

How might spirituality promote mental health. Obviously, it provides goals and meaning to life. In addition, virtually all spiritual practices and religious belief systems promote acceptance of one’s strengths and weaknesses, the need to maintain a principled life, and having harmonious relationships with others. All of these consequences of spirituality could contribute to mental health.

 

So, help reduce psychopathology with severe skin conditions with spirituality.

 

“Associations between spirituality and Eastern religious practices and lower blood pressure, lower levels of stress hormones and lower oxidative stress have been found. Moreover, associations between Judeo, Christian, and Islamic religious practices and lower blood pressure, protective effect against cardiovascular disease, increased immune function, lipid levels and protective effect against all-cause mortality were found.” –Iulia Basu-Zharku

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Unterrainer, H.-F., Lukanz, M., Pilch, M., Scharf, S., Glawischnig-Goschnik, M., Wutte, N., … Aberer, E. (2016). Spirituality and mood pathology in severe skin conditions: a prospective observational study. Archives of Dermatological Research, 308, 521–525. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-016-1672-5

 

Abstract

Although the association between spirituality and parameters of psychological health and disease has been investigated extensively, little evidence is available for its potential role in dermatology. In a single-centre observational prospective study, 149 outpatients (107 women) with systemic sclerosis (SSc; n = 44), lupus erythematosus (LE; n = 48), or early stage malignant melanoma (MM; n = 57) were investigated using the multidimensional inventory for religious/spiritual well-being together with the Brief Symptom Inventory for psychiatric symptoms (BSI-18). SSc patients reported the highest amount of Somatization in comparison with LE and MM patients (p < 0.05). Furthermore, in line with the previous research, spiritual dimensions, such as Hope for a better future (p < 0.01) or Hope for a better afterlife (p < 0.01), proved to be especially negatively predictive for the global amount of psychiatric symptom burden in these dermatological patient groups. Our findings suggest that greater attention should be given to spiritual issues, such as encouraging patients, imbuing them with optimism, and offering interventions that address spiritual well-being.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4982877/

 

Improve the Physical and Psychological State of Breast Cancer Survivors with Mindfulness

psyjdc Leave a comment

Image may contain: 1 person

Improve the Physical and Psychological State of Breast Cancer Survivors with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“A brief mindfulness-based intervention has a positive short-term effect on psychological and behavioral measures as well as proinflammatory signal markers in younger breast cancer survivors,” – Joyce O’Shaughnessy

 

About 12.5% of women in the U.S. develop invasive breast cancer over their lifetimes and every year about 40,000 women die. Indeed, more women in the U.S. die from breast cancer than from any other cancer, besides lung cancer. Breast cancer diagnosis, however, is not a death sentence. It is encouraging that the death rates have been decreasing for decades from improved detection and treatment of breast cancer. Five-year survival rates are now at around 95%.

The improved survival rates mean that more women are now living with cancer. Surviving cancer, however, carries with it a number of problems. “Physical, emotional, and financial hardships often persist for years after diagnosis and treatment. Cancer survivors are also at greater risk for developing second cancers and other health conditions.” (National Cancer Survivors Day). In addition, breast cancer survivors can have to deal with a heightened fear of reoccurrence, and an alteration of their body image.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to help with cancer recovery and help to alleviate many of the residual physical and psychological symptoms, including stress,  sleep disturbance, and anxiety and depression.. Indeed, yoga practice has been found to improve sleep quality and memory, reduce the side effects from chemotherapy, relieve neuromuscular symptoms, and improve the quality of life in cancer survivors. Also, Tai Chi or Qigong practice has been shown to improve quality of life, reduce fatigue, and lower blood pressure and cortisol levels.

 

Hence various practices that have the common property of improving mindfulness, are able to relieve symptoms in breast cancer survivors. It is possible that they have a common mechanism of action. In today’s Research News article “A Systematic Review of Spiritually Based Interventions and Psychoneuroimmunological Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivorship.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1475016505855604/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5125023/

Hulett and colleagues review the published research literature to explore whether psychoneuroimmunological factors may be the mechanism by which these various practices relieve the residual symptoms after breast cancer survival. They included all studies regardless of the type of mindfulness practice, including mindfulness, meditation, yoga, tai chi or qigong practices, that studied breast cancer survivors and included measures of mental influences on the brain and immune system. By far the most frequently used practice was Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

 

The found that the literature reports that mindfulness practices produce improvements in breast cancer survivors in the psychological symptoms of quality of life, depression, stress, anxiety, fatigue, and mood. In regards to psychoneuroimmunological factors, they found that the literature reports that mindfulness practices produce reductions in breast cancer survivors in cortisol levels, a marker if stress and inflammation, and some studies report preservations of DNA telomeres, a marker of cellular aging. They also found that MBSR was reported to improve inflammatory cytokine activity, improve lymphocyte function, improve or stabilize cortisol levels, and increase or preserve telomere activity.

 

Hence the research literature has found extensive and positive psychological and psychoneuroimmunological effects of mindfulness practices on breast cancer survivors. The association of psychoneuroimmunological effects with the psychological benefits of the practices is striking and suggests that there may be links between the two, but causation cannot be conclusively determined. But, nevertheless, mindfulness practices appear to both improve psychological health and also the body’s ability to withstand stress and reduce inflammation. These are very positive benefits that suggest that mindfulness practices are a safe and effective treatment for breast cancer survivors. It remains for future research to investigate possible causal connections.

 

So, improve the physical and psychological state of breast cancer survivors with mindfulness.

 

“Mindfulness meditation seems to help breast cancer patients better manage symptoms of fatigue, anxiety and fear of recurrence.” – Kathleen Doheny

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Hulett, J. M., & Armer, J. M. (2016). A Systematic Review of Spiritually Based Interventions and Psychoneuroimmunological Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivorship. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 15(4), 405–423. http://doi.org/10.1177/1534735416636222

 

Abstract

Objective: This is a review of spiritually based interventions (eg, mindfulness-based stress reduction) that utilized psychoneuroimmunological (PNI) outcome measures in breast cancer survivors. Specifically, this review sought to examine the evidence regarding relationships between spiritually based interventions, psychosocial-spiritual outcomes, and biomarker outcomes in breast cancer survivors.

Methods: A systematic search of 9 online databases was conducted for articles of original research, peer-reviewed, randomized and nonrandomized control trials from 2005–2015. Data were extracted in order to answer selected questions regarding relationships between psychosocial-spiritual and physiological measures utilized in spiritually based interventions. Implications for future spiritually based interventions in breast cancer survivorship are discussed.

Results: Twenty-two articles were reviewed. Cortisol was the most common PNI biomarker outcome studied. Compared with control groups, intervention groups demonstrated positive mental health outcomes and improved or stable neuroendocrine-immune profiles, although limitations exist. Design methods have improved with regard to increased use of comparison groups compared with previous reviews. There are few spiritually based interventions that specifically measure religious or spiritual constructs. Similarly, there are few existing studies that utilize standardized religious or spiritual measures with PNI outcome measures. Findings suggest that a body of knowledge now exists in support of interventions with mindfulness-breathing-stretching components; furthermore, these interventions appear to offer potential improvement or stabilization of neuroendocrine-immune activity in breast cancer survivors compared to control groups.

Conclusion: From a PNI perspective, future spiritually based interventions should include standardized measures of religiousness and spirituality in order to understand relationships between and among religiousness, spirituality, and neuroendocrine-immune outcomes. Future research should now focus on determining the minimum dose and duration needed to improve or stabilize neuroendocrine-immune function, as well as diverse setting needs, including home-based practice for survivors who are too ill to travel to group sessions or lack economic resources.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5125023/

 

Reduce the Psychological Distress Produced by Chronic Pain with Mindfulness

psyjdc Leave a comment

Reduce the Psychological Distress Produced by Chronic Pain with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“When it comes to chronic pain, the key is learning to live with it rather than vainly trying to avoid or eradicate it; a regular meditation practice is the best ongoing foundation for working with pain.” – Christiane Wolf

 

We all have to deal with pain. It’s inevitable, but hopefully it’s mild and short lived. For a wide swath of humanity, however, pain is a constant in their lives. At least 100 million adult Americans have common chronic pain conditions. It has to be kept in mind that pain is an important signal that there is something wrong or that damage is occurring. This signals that some form of action is needed to mitigate the damage. This is an important signal that is ignored at the individual’s peril. So, in dealing with pain, it’s important that pain signals not be blocked or prevented. They need to be perceived. But, methods are needed to mitigate the psychological distress produced by chronic pain.

 

The most common treatment for chronic pain is drugs. These include over-the-counter analgesics and opioids. But opioids are dangerous and prescription opioid overdoses kill more than 14,000 people annually. So, there is a great need to find safe and effective ways to lower the psychological distress and improve the patients ability to cope with the pain. Pain is affected by the mind. The perception of pain can be amplified by the emotional reactions to it and also by attempts to fight or counteract it. Pain perception can be reduced by aerobic exercise and mental states, including placebo effects, attention, and conditioning. Additionally, mindfulness has been shown to reduce both chronic and acute pain and are safe. Mindfulness may be an effective treatment to be used in combination with other treatments. Hence, it is important to study mindfulness practice effects on chronic pain and the psychological distress it produces.

 

In today’s Research News article “A 13-Weeks Mindfulness Based Pain Management Program Improves Psychological Distress in Patients with Chronic Pain Compared with Waiting List Controls.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1473967172627204/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5037934/

Andersen and Vægter recruited patients with chronic non-malignant pain who entered a pain clinic for treatment and a control group on the waiting list for treatment at the clinic. Both groups received medical treatment as usual, but the intervention group in addition received a 13-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MBCT) program. Therapy was conducted once a week in a 2.5-hour session, combined with homework assignments supported with written and recorded materials. Patients were measured for pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, pain acceptance, anxiety, depression, mindfulness, and psychological distress prior to and after treatment.

 

It was found that the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MBCT) program produced a significant decrease in depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and pain catastrophizing, and an increase in pain acceptance and mindfulness. There were no significant changes in pain intensity. The change in mindfulness and also in pain acceptance were highly correlated with the reduction in psychological distress. Hence, MBCT reduced the psychological impact of chronic pain without changing the perception of pain. It appears to do so by increasing mindfulness and pain acceptance.

 

These are interesting results that suggest that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MBCT) is a safe and effective adjunct treatment for patients with chronic pain. The fact that MBCT improved mindfulness is expected as mindfulness training is targeted to do just that. The fact that MBCT also improves pain acceptance is also expected as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is targeted to do so. In addition, mindfulness training and MBCT have been shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and worry and catastrophizing. So, the results would be expected. But, it is always important to confirm even expected outcomes.

 

So, reduce the psychological distress produced by chronic pain with mindfulness.

 

“It is still early days in terms of understanding why meditation can be so helpful in coping with pain, although the ancient origins of meditation in the different yoga and contemplative traditions suggests that people have known of these benefits for hundreds of years.” – Jean Byrne

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and Twitter at @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Andersen, T. E., & Vægter, H. B. (2016). A 13-Weeks Mindfulness Based Pain Management Program Improves Psychological Distress in Patients with Chronic Pain Compared with Waiting List Controls. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health : CP & EMH, 12, 49–58. http://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901612010049

 

Abstract

Background:: Eradication of pain is seldom an option in chronic pain management. Hence, mindfulness meditation has become popular in pain management.

Objective: This pilot study compared the effect of a 13-weeks cognitive behavioural therapy program with integrated mindfulness meditation (CBTm) in patients with chronic non-malignant pain with a control condition. It was hypothesised that the CBTm program would reduce pain intensity and psychological distress compared to the control condition and that level of mindfulness and acceptance both would be associated with the reduction in pain intensity and psychological distress.

Methods: A case-control design was used and data were collected from a convenience sample of 70 patients with chronic non-malignant pain. Fifty patients were consecutively recruited to the CBTm intervention and 20 patients matched waiting list controls. Assessments of clinical pain and psychological distress were performed in both groups at baseline and after 13 weeks.

Results: The CBTm program reduced depression, anxiety and pain-catastrophizing compared with the control group. Increased level of mindfulness and acceptance were associated with change in psychological distress with the exception of depression, which was only associated with change in level of mindfulness. Surprisingly, changes in level of mindfulness did not correlate with changes in acceptance.

Conclusions: The results indicate that different mechanisms are targeted with cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness. The finding that changes in level of mindfulness did not correlate with changes in acceptance may indicate that acceptance is not a strict prerequisite for coping with pain related distress.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5037934/

 

Improve Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms with Qigong

psyjdc 5 Comments

Image may contain: one or more people and closeup

Improve Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms with Qigong

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Through Tai Chi, I get a sense of accomplishment and well being, knowing that I can still function relatively well and, in some cases better, than a person with no physical limitations. It has given me an acute awareness of my body, which parts are not aligned and how to bring them back into the whole of the body so that it functions as one unit.  Tai Chi has helped me to cope with Parkinson’s and has heightened my enjoyment of life.” – Daniel Loney

 

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) has received public attention because of its occurrence in a number of celebrities such as Mohammed Ali, Michael J Fox, and Linda Ronstadt. PD is an incurable progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system. The condition is caused by the death of nerve cells in the brain that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Its physical symptoms include resting tremor, slow movements, muscle rigidity, problems with posture and balance, loss of automatic movements, and slurring of speech.

 

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) itself is not fatal but is often associated with related complications which can reduce life expectancy, such as falls, choking, and cardiovascular problems. There are also psychological effects, especially anxiety and depression. All of these symptoms result in a marked reduction in the quality of life. There are around seven million people worldwide and one million people in the U.S. living with PD and about 60,000 people are diagnosed with PD every year. PD is associated with aging as the vast majority of patients are diagnosed after age 50. In fact, it has been speculated that everyone would eventually develop PD if they lived long enough.

 

Mindfulness training has been found to improve the psychological symptoms and the quality of life with PD patients. But, since PD is a movement disorder that requires physical therapy for treatment, a mindful movement practice such as Qigong and Tai Chi may be particularly effective. Qigong is ancient mindful movement practices that has been found to produce beneficial effects for a large range of physical and psychological problems. Since, it is a very gentle and safe practice, it is particularly appropriate for the elderly. In addition, falling is the most common cause of injury and death in PD patients and Qigong and Tai Chi have been found to be very effective in lowering the risk of falling. In today’s Research News article “Effects of Health Qigong Exercises on Relieving Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1472686966088558/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5116525/

Liu and colleagues investigate the effectiveness of Qigong practice for the elderly with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). They recruited patients with mild to moderate PD and randomly assigned them to receive either treatment as usual or treatment as usual combined with Qigong practice, 1-hour per day, 5 days per week, for 10 weeks. They were measured for muscle hardness and elasticity, physical stability, and coordination, prior to, during and after the 10-week practice period.

 

They found that in comparison to treatment as usual, Qigong practice produced a significant (10%) decrease in muscle hardness on both sides at the interim assessment which continued to improve to 20% at the post treatment assessment. The practice also produced a significant 11% improvement in hand eye coordination at interim and 22% at post-test and a significant 30% improvement in balance at interim and 50% at post-test. Hence, Qigong practice produced marked improvements in muscle elasticity, coordination, and balance in PD patients.

 

These results are striking and clinically significant. Qigong practice would appear to be an important therapy to be used in addition to traditional drug therapy. It should be noted that there was no another exercise condition tested. So, it cannot be determined if any type of gentle exercise would be as effective as Qigong. Regardless, it is clear that Qigong practice helps to ameliorate the motor deterioration produced by Parkinson’s Disease. Since, it is safe, even for use with the frail elderly, it would appear to be an excellent choice for the treatment of PD.

 

So, improve Parkinson’s disease symptoms with qigong.

 

“Tai chi engages both mind and body; you might call it “mindful movement.” It may help patients use undamaged parts of their brains to compensate for the areas that normally control automatic movements such as walking.” – Peter Wayne

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Liu, X. L., Chen, S., & Wang, Y. (2016). Effects of Health Qigong Exercises on Relieving Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM, 2016, 5935782. http://doi.org/10.1155/2016/5935782

 

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Health Qigong on the treatment and releasing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Fifty-four moderate PD patients (N = 54) were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Twenty-eight PD patients were placed in the experimental group in which the prescribed medication plus Health Qigong exercise will be used as intervention. The other 26 PD patients as the control group were treated only with regular medication. Ten-week intervention had been conducted for the study, and participants completed the scheduled exercises 5 times per week for 60 minutes each time (10 minutes for warm-up, 40 minutes for the exercise, and 10 minutes for cooldown). Data which included the muscle hardness, one-legged blind balance, physical coordination, and stability was collected before, during, and after the intervention. Comparisons were made between the experimental and control groups through the Repeated Measures ANOVA. The results showed that PD patients demonstrate a significant improvement in muscle hardness, the timed “up and go,” balance, and hand-eye coordination (the turn-over-jars test). There were no significant differences between the two groups in gender, age, and course of differences (P < 0.05). The study concluded that Health Qigong exercises could reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and improve the body functions of PD patients in both the mild and moderate stages. It can be added as an effective treatment of rehabilitation therapy for PD.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5116525/

 

Improve Knee Osteoarthritis with Yoga

psyjdc Leave a comment

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people sitting and living room

Improve Knee Osteoarthritis with Yoga

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Hatha yoga is an important non-medicinal method in rehabilitation of patients with knee osteoarthritis and will result in a significant decrease in pain and symptoms and a significant increase in daily activities, sports and spare-time activities, and quality of life.” – Gholam Ghasemi,

 

Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disease that is the most common form of arthritis. It produces pain, swelling, and stiffness of the joints. It is the leading cause of disability in the U.S., with about 43% of arthritis sufferers limited in mobility and about a third having limitations that affect their ability to perform their work. In the U.S., osteoarthritis affects 14% of adults over 25 years of age and 34% of those over 65.

 

Knee osteoarthritis effects 5% of adults over 25 years of age and 12% of those over 65. It involves the whole joint, including articular cartilage, meniscus, ligament, and peri-articular muscle. It is painful and disabling. Its causes are varied including, hereditary, injury including sports injuries, repetitive stress injuries, infection, or from being overweight.  There are no cures for knee osteoarthritis. Treatments are primarily symptomatic, including weight loss, exercise, braces, pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, arthroscopic knee surgery, or even knee replacement.

 

Mind-body practices in general have been shown to reduce the gene expressions that underlie the inflammatory response which contribute to arthritis. It is also known that gentle movements of the joints with exercise appears to be helpful in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. This suggests that yoga practice, which involves both mindfulness and exercise of the joints may be useful for treatment. Indeed, yoga practice has been shown to be a safe and effective treatment for a wide variety of physical and psychological conditions, including arthritis. So, it would seem reasonable to look further into the effectiveness of yoga practice in treating knee osteoarthritis.

 

In today’s Research News article “The Effects of Yoga on Pain, Mobility, and Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1471491792874742/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061981/

Kan and colleagues review the published research studies on the effectiveness of yoga practice for knee osteoarthritis. They found 9 published articles, with subjects between 51-70 years of age. Yoga practice was for 60-90 minutes per session and 3-4 sessions per week for from 8-20 weeks. Most of the studies included a control condition, most frequently comparing physical therapy plus yoga practice to physical therapy alone. They found that the literature uniformly reported that the yoga practice was safe, with no adverse effects and that it produced clinically significant decreases in knee osteoarthritis pain. Although the findings were mixed, overall there appeared to be improvement produced by yoga practice in movement and mobility, and the patients’ quality of life.

 

The published research strongly suggests that the practice of yoga is a safe and effective way to improve pain, mobility, and quality of life in people suffering with knee osteoarthritis. Yoga contains both exercise and mindfulness practice. The published studies did not separate these components. So, it cannot be determined if either alone or in combination are essential for effectiveness. But, it is clear that knee osteoarthritis patients can practice yoga and that it is a safe and effective practice to help relieve the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.

 

So, improve knee osteoarthritis with yoga.

 

“Yoga is definitely one option for people with arthritis. Not only for the exercise benefits, but it’s also beneficial in the mind/body area, promoting relaxation and stress reduction,” – Sharon Kolasinksi

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

 

Study Summary

Kan, L., Zhang, J., Yang, Y., & Wang, P. (2016). The Effects of Yoga on Pain, Mobility, and Quality of Life in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM, 2016, 6016532. http://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6016532

 

Abstract

Objective. To systematically assess the effects of yoga on pain, mobility, and quality of life in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Methods. Pubmed, Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), and other sources were searched systematically in this study. Two reviewers identified eligible studies and extracted data independently. Downs and Black’s Quality Index were used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies. Results. A total of 9 articles (6 studies) involving 372 patients with knee osteoarthritis met the inclusion criteria. The most common yoga protocol is 40~90 minutes/session, lasting for at least 8 weeks. The effect of yoga on pain relief and function improvement could be seen after two-week intervention. Conclusion. This systematic review showed that yoga might have positive effects in relieving pain and mobility on patients with KOA, but the effects on quality of life (QOL) are unclear. Besides, more outcome measure related to mental health of yoga effects on people with KOA should be conducted.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061981/

 

Reduce Amygdala Mediated Stress responses with Mindfulness

psyjdc Leave a comment

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc. Object name is nsv066f2p.jpg

Reduce Amygdala Mediated Stress responses with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“It is vital to practice mindfulness to ensure you help the mind to relieve stress. Notably, constant fear and anxiety are likely to sabotage and hinder achievements. Mindfulness can be effective in dealing with both stress and anxiety.“ – Pick the Brain

 

Stress is an integral part of life. In fact, I’ve quipped that the definition of death is when stress ceases. People often think of stress as a bad thing. But, it is in fact essential to the health of the body. If the muscles are not stressed to some extent they deteriorate. As it turns out, this is also true for the brain. The same goes for our psychological health. If we don’t have any stress, we call it boredom. In fact, we invest time and resources in stressing ourselves, e.g. ridding rollercoasters, sky diving, competing in sports, etc. We say we love a challenge, but, challenges are all stressful. So, we actually love to stress ourselves. In moderation, it is healthful and provides interest and fun to life.

 

If stress, is high or is prolonged, however, it can be problematic. It can damage our physical and mental health and even reduce our longevity, leading to premature deaths. So, it is important that we employ methods to either reduce or control high or prolonged stress or reduce our responses to it. Mindfulness practices have been found routinely to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. It is known that stress not only affects the body but also affects the brain, producing changes particularly in neural circuits involving the Amygdala. Mindfulness also alters the brain, particularly neural circuits involved in attention, executive functions, and emotion regulation. This suggests that mindfulness may also alter the Amygdala circuits in the brain to affect the stress responses.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1470331626324092/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666115/

Taren and colleagues recruited adult participants from the community and measure perceived stress and also scanned their brains with functional magnetic imaging (f-MRI). They found that the greater the perceived stress in the individual the greater the functional connectivity between the Amygdala and the Cingulate Cortex. This verified the notion that stress can act by altering the neural circuits involving the Amygdala but was correlational and did not demonstrate causation.

 

Taren and colleagues then went on to examine the effects of meditation practice on these Amygdala circuits. They recruited unemployed community participants who were seeking employment and also exhibited high stress levels and randomly assigned them to either an intensive 3-day mindfulness meditation condition or a 3-day rest and relaxation condition. The mindfulness practice consisted of the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program condensed into an intensive 3-day period. In the rest and relaxation condition, the participants engaged in similar activities to those included in an MBSR program but were instructed to do them in a restful way rather than a mindful way. Before and after the 3-day intervention the participants underwent f-MRI scans of their brains.

 

The researchers found that prior to the intervention period both groups displayed relatively high functional connectivity of the Amygdala with the Cingulate Cortex, but following meditation training, but not relaxation, there was a significant reduction in this connectivity. They also found that a biological marker of stress, cortisol levels, was inversely related to reductions in the connectivity; the greater the reduction in connectivity the greater the reduction in the cortisol levels. This suggests that mindfulness training reduces stress responses by reducing the ability of the Amygdala to affect other brain regions.

 

These results are interesting and provide evidence of the types of changes in the brain produced by mindfulness training that underlie the stress reducing properties of mindfulness training. The Amygdala is known to be involved in stress responses and emotionality so reducing its ability to affect other neural structures would appear to be critical for mindfulness’ stress reducing properties. Hence, a coherent picture is emerging of the physiological mechanisms underlying the ability of mindfulness to reduce stress responses.

 

So, reduce amygdala mediated stress responses with mindfulness.

 

“The picture we have is that mindfulness practice increases one’s ability to recruit higher order, pre-frontal cortex regions in order to down-regulate lower-order brain activity. In other words, our more primal responses to stress seem to be superseded by more thoughtful ones.” – Adrienne Taren

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Taren, A. A., Gianaros, P. J., Greco, C. M., Lindsay, E. K., Fairgrieve, A., Brown, K. W., … Creswell, J. D. (2015). Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(12), 1758–1768. http://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv066

 

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that mindfulness meditation training interventions reduce stress and improve stress-related health outcomes, but the neural pathways for these effects are unknown. The present research evaluates whether mindfulness meditation training alters resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the amygdala, a region known to coordinate stress processing and physiological stress responses. We show in an initial discovery study that higher perceived stress over the past month is associated with greater bilateral amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) rsFC in a sample of community adults (n = 130). A follow-up, single-blind randomized controlled trial shows that a 3-day intensive mindfulness meditation training intervention (relative to a well-matched 3-day relaxation training intervention without a mindfulness component) reduced right amygdala-sgACC rsFC in a sample of stressed unemployed community adults (n = 35). Although stress may increase amygdala-sgACC rsFC, brief training in mindfulness meditation could reverse these effects. This work provides an initial indication that mindfulness meditation training promotes functional neuroplastic changes, suggesting an amygdala-sgACC pathway for stress reduction effects.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666115/

 

Improve Personality and Well-being with a Meditation Retreat

psyjdc Leave a comment

Image may contain: one or more people, people sitting, table and indoor

Improve Personality and Well-being with a Meditation Retreat

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Even if you’re terrified, even if you have no interest in being a monk and you’re not an extremist by nature, I know that sitting in silence for 10 days will blow your mind.” – MeiMei Fox

 

Retreat can be a powerful experience. But, in some ways, is like being on vacation. Everything is taken care of, beds made, towels and linens provided, all meals prepared, and time is dictated by a detailed schedule of meditations, talks, question and answer periods, and reflective time. All the individual has to do is show up, meditate, relax, contemplate and listen. The retreatants are terribly spoiled! That seeming ease, however, is deceptive. Retreat is actually quite difficult and challenging. It can be very tiring as it can run from early in the morning till late at night every day. It can also be physically challenging as engaging in sitting meditation repeatedly over the day is guaranteed to produce many aches and pains in the legs, back, and neck. But the real challenges are psychological, emotional, and spiritual. Retreat can be a real test.

 

Retreat isn’t all relaxation and fun. Far from it. The darkness can descend. During silent retreat, deep emotional issues can emerge and may even overwhelm the individual. Many participants will spontaneously burst out in tears. Others may become overwhelmed with fear and anxiety and break out in cold sweats, and still others are sleepless and tormented. How can this be, that something so seemingly peaceful as silent retreat can be so emotionally wrenching? The secret is that the situation removes the minds ability to hide and distract.

 

Humans have done a tremendous job of providing distractions for the mind including books, movies, magazines, music, television, sports, amusement parks, surfing the internet, tweeting, texting, etc. Any time troubling thoughts or memories of traumatic experiences begin to emerge in everyday life, the subject can easily be changed by engaging in a distraction. So, the issues never have to truly be confronted. But, in silent retreat there is no escape. Difficult issues emerge and there is no place to hide. They must be confronted and experienced. For some people this may be the first time in their entire life that they’ve had to directly face themselves and their darkest thoughts. It’s no wonder that retreat can be so wrenching.

 

With all these difficulties, why would anyone want to put themselves through such an ordeal and go on a meditation retreat? People go because retreat has many profound and sometimes life altering benefits. The benefits of retreat were investigated in today’s Research News article “Psychological Effects of a 1-Month Meditation Retreat on Experienced Meditators.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1469065896450665/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01935/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w51-2016

Montero-Marin and colleagues recruited experienced meditators who participated in a 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat, with 8-9 hours of meditation and 1-2 hours of teaching each day, and compared them to a control group of experienced meditators matched on gender, age, ethnicity, educational, and type of meditation practice. They were measured before and after the retreat for non-attachment, decentering, mindfulness, loving kindness, compassion, joy, and acceptance toward both the self and others, positive and negative affect, satisfaction with life, temperament, and character.

 

They found that following the retreat participants, compared to controls, showed increased non-attachment, observing, mindfulness, positive-affect, balance-affect, and cooperativeness; and decreased describing, negative-others, reward-dependence and self-directedness. Employing a sophisticated statistical technique, they were able to show that non-attachment had a mediating role in decentring, acting aware, non-reactivity, negative-affect, balance-affect and self-directedness; and a moderating role in describing and positive others, with both mediating and moderating effects on satisfaction with life. Hence, attending a 1-month retreat produced improvements in non-attachment, which, in turn, produced improvements in mindfulness, positive emotions, temperament and character.

 

These are important results demonstrating the ability of participation in retreat to powerfully affect an individual beyond what is accomplished by long-term experience meditating. Concentrated practice over an extended period during retreat appears to magnify the effects of meditation, producing even greater positive benefits to the individual. Hence, even though retreat can be difficult, physically and emotionally, it is clear that its benefits, for many, far exceed its costs. This isn’t even considering the powerful spiritual experiences that can occur during retreat. This might account for the popularity of retreat and why it has been seen as an essential component of practice over hundreds of years.

 

So, improve personality and well-being with a meditation retreat.

 

“The retreat helped me realize that I’m full of desire, of longings for raw experience, and unbelievably controlling of how my life is lived. It sounds simple, but one week of silence may give you a hint, maybe more reliably than almost anything else, of who you are.” – Tim Wu

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Montero-Marin J, Puebla-Guedea M, Herrera-Mercadal P, Cebolla A, Soler J, Demarzo M, Vazquez C, Rodríguez-Bornaetxea F and García-Campayo J (2016) Psychological Effects of a 1-Month Meditation Retreat on Experienced Meditators: The Role of Non-attachment. Front. Psychol. 7:1935. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01935

 

Background: There are few studies devoted to assessing the impact of meditation-intensive retreats on the well-being, positive psychology, and personality of experienced meditators. We aimed to assess whether a 1-month Vipassana retreat: (a) would increase mindfulness and well-being; (b) would increase prosocial personality traits; and (c) whether psychological changes would be mediated and/or moderated by non-attachment.

Method: A controlled, non-randomized, pre-post-intervention trial was used. The intervention group was a convenience sample (n = 19) of experienced meditators who participated in a 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat. The control group (n = 19) comprised matched experienced meditators who did not take part in the retreat. During the retreat, the mean duration of daily practice was 8–9 h, the diet was vegetarian and silence was compulsory. The Experiences Questionnaire (EQ), Non-attachment Scale (NAS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Temperament Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R-67), Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Self-Other Four Immeasurables (SOFI) and the MINDSENS Composite Index were administered. ANCOVAs and linear regression models were used to assess pre-post changes and mediation/moderation effects.

Results: Compared to controls, retreatants showed increases in non-attachment, observing, MINDSENS, positive-affect, balance-affect, and cooperativeness; and decreases in describing, negative-others, reward-dependence and self-directedness. Non-attachment had a mediating role in decentring, acting aware, non-reactivity, negative-affect, balance-affect and self-directedness; and a moderating role in describing and positive others, with both mediating and moderating effects on satisfaction with life.

Conclusions: A 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat seems to yield improvements in mindfulness, well-being, and personality, even in experienced meditators. Non-attachment might facilitate psychological improvements of meditation, making it possible to overcome possible ceiling effects ascribed to non-intensive practices.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01935/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w51-2016

It’s the Awareness, Stupid!

psyjdc Leave a comment

Related image

It’s the Awareness, Stupid

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“The greatest human gift is to be aware, to be in touch with oneself, one’s body, mind, feelings, thoughts, sensations.”– Anthony de Mello

 

The vast majority of the human race is, and has always been, on a spiritual search, to find greater meaning in life and beyond. We expend time engaging in spiritual practices, going on retreat, visiting sacred sites, attending religious services, watching televangelists, etc. We expend resources supporting churches, temples, mosques, monasteries etc. supporting priests, ministers, evangelists, missionaries, gurus, rabbis, imams, spiritual teachers, and we may even tithe a considerable fraction of our wealth. And we expend cognitive and emotional resources philosophizing, studying sacred texts, ruminating about the health of the soul, listening to sermons, having conversations about spirituality/religion, etc.

 

Why do humans do this? Why do we feel such a strong pull toward spirituality? On a rational level we would do substantively better in our lives if we invested the time and resources on our careers, families, relationships, secular issues etc. rather than on spirituality. But there is something inside of us that demands attention and makes us feel that there is more to life than just the physical. Most people can’t identify what it is, but they feel strongly that there is a spiritual component of their existence. They sense something about themselves that is more than a biological machine, something enduring, something outside of the earthly realm.

 

The answer is actually right there and obvious, but they can’t see it. As Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth, but men do not see it.” They don’t understand that the one that’s doing the seeking is what they’re seeking. Sometimes I want to just scream out, “it’s the awareness, stupid.” It’s what’s seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and even what’s feeling that there’s something more. It’s the awareness they experience. It’s so obvious that most people miss it. It seems that they’re looking for something different than what is already present. So, they don’t see the most obvious, constant, and important experience of all; awareness.

 

It’s our awareness that’s responsible for all the spiritual seeking. But, we don’t seem to see that that’s what we’re seeking. Instead, we look everywhere else for something else. To some extent it’s the fault of spiritual teachings which often promise or portray a realm of existence that is far different from what is currently being experienced. The iconography portrays realized beings as altered and otherworldly, not as someone just like us. So, we constantly look for something different from what we’re experiencing and missing the oh so obvious. “It’s the awareness, stupid!”

 

Another reason why we miss it is that our nervous systems are programmed to detect change. That makes sense as they adapted to protect us from danger and a change in the environment may signal a threat that needs to be addressed as a priority and immediately, so we do. A change may also signal an opportunity, perhaps prey, and we need to react quickly to take advantage. Attention is grabbed by new things. In fact, we tend to ignore stable stimuli, like the constant hum of a ceiling fan, the feeling of our clothes on our bodies, or a persistent constant odor in the room. The retina of our eye only sends a signal to the brain when there’s a change. So, a constant image on a constant place on the retina disappears. Our awareness has been constant and unchanging throughout our existence. So, it’s no wonder we miss it, the entire nervous system is designed to ignore such things.

 

Our attention is also attracted by strong stimuli, loud noises, bright lights, strong odors, etc.  Awareness is totally quiet, deeply silent, always in the background, never in the foreground. It doesn’t produce anything. It just registers what is. So, there is nothing to bring attention to awareness. How would we ever recognize its significance when it is mostly not on the radar screen?

 

If awareness is like this, what leads to the conclusion that it is what we’re seeking in our spiritual search? What evidence do we have that it is our true nature? After all, how can something so low key and unassuming be the spiritual key to understanding birth, life, death, and the nature of reality? To answer this question, it is important to look at what would be the characteristics of something that was indeed our true nature. Firstly, the truth doesn’t change or fluctuate. If it’s really the truth, it will always be the same. Secondly, it will always be there. Our true nature can’t come and go. It must be forever present. And lastly, our true nature could not be affected by temporary conditions. It must withstand all nature of changes in our environment, our physiology, and our psychological processes, remaining steadfast, constant, unaltered.

 

The idea we have of our self doesn’t live up to these criteria. The idea of self has been in constant change from the earliest moments of life to the present moment. It comes and goes depending upon what we’re doing and thinking about. And it is very much affected by our experiences. In fact, it is to a large extent built upon them. So, the self cannot be our true nature. Is our immortal soul, as taught by many religions, our true nature? Well, we can’t tell if it changes, but religion teaches that it does, as it’s blemished by sin. This also suggests that it’s affected by experience. In addition, we can’t detect if it comes and goes as no matter how hard we look, it can’t be found or observed. So, how could an immortal soul that we cannot find or observe be our true nature?

 

Awareness, on the other hand, has never changed. We are never more or less aware. The content of awareness is forever changing. The sensory stimuli in the environment are in a constant flux as are the contents of our ever changing minds, sometimes in the present moment, sometimes lost in memory or fantasy, sometime planning for the future. But the awareness of these changing mental states and sensory experiences is always the same. It always just silently registers whatever is transpiring. Awareness has always been there, never coming or going. It was there at birth, throughout development, and right now and has always been the same. Finally, awareness, isn’t affected by the external or internal environments. It’s the same when we’re ill as when we’re health, when we’re upset as when we’re calm, when we’re bombarded by intense stimulation like at a rock concert as when we’re in silence, when our minds affected by drugs as when totally sober. It’s always present and never changing regardless of circumstances. So, our awareness fits all of the criteria of being our true nature.

 

Even with this being true, how can we be sure that it actually is our true nature? Many religious and spiritual teachers and realized beings tell it is. But, if it’s the truth we need not take someone else’s word about it. We should be able to see for our self. Indeed, that is what the Buddha taught, “Do not believe anything, even my teachings, go and see for yourself.” He even told us how to, by meditation and deep contemplation, looking inside, not outside for the key to understanding our existence. It is here that we can clearly see that at the center, the core, of all experience is an unchanging, immortal awareness.

 

When you go see for yourself, you will see “it’s the awareness, stupid.”

 

“Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence.” – Anthony de Mello

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Improve the Symptoms of Stress with Mindfulness

psyjdc Leave a comment

Image may contain: 7 people, people smiling, people standing and outdoor

Improve the Symptoms of Stress with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Through mindfulness, individuals start to see their thoughts as less powerful. These distorted thoughts – such as “I always make mistakes” or “I’m a horrible person” – start to hold less weight. We ‘experience’ thoughts and other sensations, but we aren’t carried away by them. We just watch them come and go.” – William Marchand

 

Stress is universal. We are constantly under some form of stress. In fact, if we don’t have enough stress, we seek out more. Moderate stress can be a good thing promoting growth and flourishing. But, it must be moderate or what is called the optimum level of stress. Too little or too much stress can be damaging. Unfortunately for many of us living in a competitive, multitasking, modern environment stress is all too often higher than desirable. In addition, many of the normal mechanisms for dealing with stress have been eliminated. The business of modern life removes opportunities for rest, extra sleep, and leisure activities. Instead people are working extra hours and limiting or passing up entirely vacations to stay competitive. Persistently high levels of stress are damaging and can directly produce disease or debilitation increasing susceptibility to other diseases. Indeed, chronic stress has been associated with depression, anxiety, burnout, suicide attempts, poor immune functioning, and cardiovascular disorders.

 

It is beyond the ability of the individual to change the environment to reduce stress, so it is important that methods be found to reduce the individual’s responses to stress; to make the individual more resilient when high levels of stress occur. Contemplative practices including meditation practice have been shown to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. Because of their ability to relieve stress, mindfulness trainings are increasingly being practiced by individuals and are even being encouraged in some workplaces. But, some other treatments such as exercise or biofeedback may also be effective.

 

In today’s Research News article “A RCT Comparing Daily Mindfulness Meditations, Biofeedback Exercises, and Daily Physical Exercise on Attention Control, Executive Functioning, Mindful Awareness, Self-Compassion, and Worrying in Stressed Young Adults.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1466297833394138/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5010624/

de Bruin and colleagues recruited young adults, aged 18-40 years, who were high in perceived stress and randomly assigned them to either a daily mindfulness meditations, daily heart rate variability biofeedback, or daily physical exercise groups. The participants were provided a 2-hour orientation instruction and then practiced daily over 5 weeks for 10 to 20 minutes per day on an individualized practice plan. They were measured before and after treatment and 6-weeks later for attention control, executive function, mindfulness, self-compassion, and worry.

 

They found that all three interventions produced significant improvement from the pretest to posttest in attention control, executive function, mindfulness, self-compassion, and worry. These effects remained significant at the 6-week follow-up, suggesting lasting effects. All practices had moderate to large effects sizes. Surprisingly there were no significant differences between the three different practices as all produced significant improvements in the measures.

 

It is interesting that all three practices produced significant increases in mindfulness. This would be expected for the mindfulness meditation group but is somewhat surprising for the heart rate variability biofeedback and physical exercise groups. This fact may explain why all of the practices were beneficial. It suggests that improved mindfulness is responsible for the improvements in attention control, executive function, self-compassion, and worry. This seems reasonable, give that mindfulness training has been shown previously to improve attention control, executive function, self-compassion, and worry. Hence it appears that there are a number of practices that can improve the psychological conditions of stressed young adults and that they act by increasing mindfulness.

 

So, improve the symptoms of stress with mindfulness.

 

“mindfulness meditation promotes metacognitive awareness, decreases rumination via disengagement from perseverative cognitive activities and enhances attentional capacities through gains in working memory. These cognitive gains, in turn, contribute to effective emotion-regulation strategies.” – Daphne Davis

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

De Bruin, E. I., van der Zwan, J. E., & Bögels, S. M. (2016). A RCT Comparing Daily Mindfulness Meditations, Biofeedback Exercises, and Daily Physical Exercise on Attention Control, Executive Functioning, Mindful Awareness, Self-Compassion, and Worrying in Stressed Young Adults. Mindfulness, 7(5), 1182–1192. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0561-5

 

Abstract

Our Western society is characterized by multitasking, competition, and constant time pressure. Negative effects of stress for the individual (anxiety, depression, somatic complaints) and for organizations and society (costs due to work absence) are very high. Thus, time-efficient self-help interventions to address these issues are necessary. This study assessed the effects of daily mindfulness meditations (MM) versus daily heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV-BF) and daily physical exercise (PE) on attention control, executive functioning, mindful awareness, self-compassion, and worrying. Young adults (n = 75, age range 18 to 40) with elevated stress levels were randomized to MM, HRV-BF, or PE, and measurements were taken at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Interventions in all three groups were self-guided and lasted for 5 weeks. Generalized estimating equation analyses showed that overall, all three interventions were effective and did not differ from each other. However, practice time differed between groups, with participants in the PE group practicing much more than participants in the other two groups. Therefore, additional analyses were carried out in two subsamples. The optimal dose sample included only those participants who practiced for at least 70 % of the total prescribed time. In the equal dose sample, home practice intensity was equal for all three groups. Again, the effects of the three interventions did not differ. In conclusion, MM, HRV-BF, and PE are all effective self-help methods to improve attention control, executive functioning, mindful awareness, self-compassion, and worrying, and mindfulness meditation was not found to be more effective than HRV-biofeedback or physical exercise for these cognitive processes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5010624/

 

Relieve Trauma Symptoms and Stress in Prisoners with Meditation

psyjdc 11 Comments

Image may contain: one or more people and people sitting

Relieve Trauma Symptoms and Stress in Prisoners with Meditation

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Ever since a kid, I’ve just been miserable being myself. After just one month of meditating, I’ve felt so much energy, it’s amazing how good I feel.” – Geoff, prison inmate serving life sentence

 

Around 2 ¼ million people are incarcerated in the United States. Prison is a very stressful and difficult environment for most prisoners. This is compounded by the fact that most do not have well developed coping skills. In addition, many have suffered from trauma, often experienced early in life such as abandonment, hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, sexual abuse, bullying, discrimination, drug and alcohol abuse, and witnessing crime – including murder. In addition, prisoners frequently suffer from attention deficit disorder.

 

Prisoners are often ill equipped to engage positively in society either inside or outside of prison. Even though prisons are euphemistically labelled correctional facilities very little correction actually occurs. This is supported by the rates of recidivism. About three quarters of prisoners who are released commit crimes and are sent back to prison within 5-years. Hence there is a great need for better prison programs that can not only help the prisoner adjust to prison life but also to life after release

 

Prison provides a great deal of time for reflection and self-exploration. This provides an opportunity for growth and development. Contemplative practices are well suited to this environment. Meditation teaches skills that may be very important for prisoners. In particular, it puts the practitioner in touch with their own bodies and feelings. It improves present moment awareness and helps to overcome rumination about the past and negative thinking about the future. It’s been shown to be useful in the treatment of the effects of trauma and attention deficit disorder. It also relieves stress and improves overall health and well-being. Finally, meditation has been shown to be effective in treating depression, anxiety, and anger.

 

So, meditation would appear to be well suited to addressing the issues of prisoners. In today’s Research News article “). Reduced Trauma Symptoms and Perceived Stress in Male Prison Inmates through the Transcendental Meditation Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1465085253515396/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5101089/

Nidich and colleagues recruited prisoners and randomly assigned them to either meditation or no treatment groups. Transcendental meditation was taught in 5 1-hour sessions in a group format and the prisoners were encouraged to practice for an additional 20 minutes per day. The prisoners were measured before training and 4 months later for trauma symptoms and perceived stress.

 

It was reported that compared to the no-treatment control group, the meditation group had moderate to large significant improvements in perceived stress and in total trauma symptoms, including the anxiety, depression, dissociation, and sleep disturbance resulting from trauma. In interpreting these results, it should be noted that there was not an active or placebo control group. So, the effects cannot be conclusively attributed to meditation as any active treatment might have produced similar improvements. In addition, since prisoners are isolated and restricted, any attention provided them may have had powerful effects. This being said, the findings are exciting and suggest the meditation training is a powerful treatment for the trauma symptoms and stress evident in prison populations.

 

A large proportion of the prison population have experienced trauma and it is thought that the effects of these experiences have profoundly affected these individuals and their behavior. The ability of meditation to mitigate the effects of trauma and reduce stress make it ideal for the treatment of prisoners. It remains for future research to determine the long-term effects of meditation practice on these prisoners, their behavior in prison and after release, and their likelihood of committing new offenses.

 

So, relieve trauma symptoms and stress in prisoners with meditation.

 

“I’ve known inmates who have, as a result of their meditation practice, move from being violent streetfighters to gentle protectors of weaker prisoners. I’ve seen inmates develop an extraordinary amount of patience with exceedingly trying circumstances. I’ve seen seemingly macho men show a tender concern for others. In short, I’ve seen people who have committed some of the most serious crimes possible — people that some might describe as “animals” or “beyond hope” — becoming better people.” – Bodhipaksa

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Nidich, S., O’Connor, T., Rutledge, T., Duncan, J., Compton, B., Seng, A., & Nidich, R. (2016). Reduced Trauma Symptoms and Perceived Stress in Male Prison Inmates through the Transcendental Meditation Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial. The Permanente Journal, 20(4), 43–47. http://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/16-007

 

Abstract

Context: Trauma events are four times more prevalent in inmates than in the general public and are associated with increased recidivism and other mental and physical health issues.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of Transcendental Meditationa (TM) on trauma symptoms in male inmates.

Design: One hundred eighty-one inmates with a moderate- to high-risk criminal profile were randomly assigned to either the TM program or to a usual care control group.

Main Outcome Measures

The Trauma Symptom Checklist and the Perceived Stress Scale were administered at baseline and four-month posttest.

Results: Significant reductions in total trauma symptoms, anxiety, depression, dissociation, and sleep disturbance subscales, and perceived stress in the TM group were found compared with controls (all p values < 0.001). The high-trauma subgroup analysis further showed a higher magnitude of effects in the TM group compared with controls on all outcomes, with Cohen effect sizes ranging from 0.67 to 0.89.

Conclusion: Results are consistent with those of prior studies of the TM program in other populations and its effects on trauma symptoms and perceived stress.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5101089/