The Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation Study
| Status: | Completed |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Infectious Disease |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Immunology / Infectious Diseases |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | 25 - 55 |
| Updated: | 11/8/2014 |
| Start Date: | September 2009 |
| End Date: | December 2015 |
Mechanisms of Meditation
The increasingly widespread use of meditation for stress-related emotional and medical
conditions highlights the urgent need to rigorously evaluate mechanisms through which the
benefits of practice might be conferred. Primary challenges in this regard include
evaluating dose response relationships between practice time and outcomes; clarifying
whether physiological and behavioral effects of meditation derive primarily from
non-specific aspects of training or result from specific meditation practices; and
identifying molecular mechanisms by which meditation might affect physiological responses
relevant to stress-related illness. Recent findings from a cross-sectional study by our
group indicate that young adults who are randomized to, and practice, compassion meditation
demonstrate reduced inflammatory responses, less emotional distress, and reduced autonomic
responses to a standardized laboratory psychosocial stressor (Trier Social Stress Test
[TSST]) when compared to subjects randomized to an active control condition. However, as a
result of the cross-sectional study design and lack of a meditation comparator arm, these
results provide only partial insight into key issues outlined above regarding the role
played by specific meditation procedures and/or practice time in observed physiological and
behavioral outcomes. The primary hypothesis of the proposed work is that practicing a
meditation procedure specifically designed to enhance empathic concern for others (i.e.
compassion meditation) will optimize autonomic reactivity to psychosocial stress in a manner
that results in diminished activation of peripheral inflammatory signaling pathways and
reduced behavioral distress.
conditions highlights the urgent need to rigorously evaluate mechanisms through which the
benefits of practice might be conferred. Primary challenges in this regard include
evaluating dose response relationships between practice time and outcomes; clarifying
whether physiological and behavioral effects of meditation derive primarily from
non-specific aspects of training or result from specific meditation practices; and
identifying molecular mechanisms by which meditation might affect physiological responses
relevant to stress-related illness. Recent findings from a cross-sectional study by our
group indicate that young adults who are randomized to, and practice, compassion meditation
demonstrate reduced inflammatory responses, less emotional distress, and reduced autonomic
responses to a standardized laboratory psychosocial stressor (Trier Social Stress Test
[TSST]) when compared to subjects randomized to an active control condition. However, as a
result of the cross-sectional study design and lack of a meditation comparator arm, these
results provide only partial insight into key issues outlined above regarding the role
played by specific meditation procedures and/or practice time in observed physiological and
behavioral outcomes. The primary hypothesis of the proposed work is that practicing a
meditation procedure specifically designed to enhance empathic concern for others (i.e.
compassion meditation) will optimize autonomic reactivity to psychosocial stress in a manner
that results in diminished activation of peripheral inflammatory signaling pathways and
reduced behavioral distress.
Inclusion Criteria:
- Good medical health
Exclusion Criteria:
- current major depression
- current substance abuse
- lifetime history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder type I as assessed by the
Structured Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)
- suicidal ideation or suicide attempt within one year of study enrollment
- diagnosis of any serious ongoing medical condition including malignancy, auto-immune
disease (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease),
cardiovascular disease (other than hypertension), seizure disorder, endocrinopathy,
chronic infection (i.e. human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B or C), renal or
hepatic insufficiency, or any other current or past medical or psychiatric condition
that might increase the risk of study participation in the opinion of study personnel
- treatment with psychotropic medications within the last year (i.e. antidepressants,
anxiolytics, psychostimulants or mood stabilizers)
- active ongoing psychiatric treatment at the time of enrollment.
- use of any psychotropic medication (i.e. antidepressants, anxiolytics,
psychostimulants or mood stabilizers) within one year of screening.
- chronic use of anti-inflammatory/immunosuppressive agents, including, but not limited
to, aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, COX-2 inhibitors,
corticosteroids, etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab or methotrexate.
- any significant past meditation training/experience (defined as meditating more than
3 times a week for a period longer than a month)
We found this trial at
1
site
Emroy University Emory University, recognized internationally for its outstanding liberal artscolleges, graduate and professional schools,...
Click here to add this to my saved trials
