Meditation for Emotional Numbing in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
| Status: | Recruiting |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Psychiatric, Psychiatric |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Psychiatry / Psychology |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | 25 - 65 |
| Updated: | 4/21/2016 |
| Start Date: | May 2014 |
| End Date: | October 2016 |
| Contact: | Jennifer S Mascaro, PhD |
| Email: | jmascar@emory.edu |
| Phone: | 404-558-4461 |
Meditation Training for Emotional Numbing in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
For individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the emotional numbing
and isolation that are a core aspect of their suffering and consistently impedes remediation
often remains after first-line treatments are administered. Few interventions have proven
successful for enhancing the empathy and social connectedness that will ultimately allow
patients to flourish, and the search for target therapies is made more difficult by the fact
that very little is known about the underlying physiology of emotional numbing and social
isolation. The proposed study is designed to (1) investigate the hormonal, neural and
immunological biomarkers related to emotional numbing, and (2) test whether
cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT), an intervention designed and proven to enhance
empathy, will reduce emotional numbing and increase empathy and social connectedness in
veterans. To this end, thirty medically healthy males diagnosed with PTSD who continue to
report emotional numbing symptoms after prolonged exposure therapy will receive 8 weeks of
training in CBCT. Prior to, and again after the training, the investigators will assess
patients' levels of oxytocin, inflammation, and self-reported emotional numbing and social
connectedness. The investigators will also assess their neural response during a video task
that assesses their ability to accurately read others' emotions. The investigators
hypothesize that oxytocin, neural activity, and inflammation will predict social numbing,
isolation, and empathy, and also that CBCT will positively impact the social outcomes that
will pave the way toward health and well-being.
and isolation that are a core aspect of their suffering and consistently impedes remediation
often remains after first-line treatments are administered. Few interventions have proven
successful for enhancing the empathy and social connectedness that will ultimately allow
patients to flourish, and the search for target therapies is made more difficult by the fact
that very little is known about the underlying physiology of emotional numbing and social
isolation. The proposed study is designed to (1) investigate the hormonal, neural and
immunological biomarkers related to emotional numbing, and (2) test whether
cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT), an intervention designed and proven to enhance
empathy, will reduce emotional numbing and increase empathy and social connectedness in
veterans. To this end, thirty medically healthy males diagnosed with PTSD who continue to
report emotional numbing symptoms after prolonged exposure therapy will receive 8 weeks of
training in CBCT. Prior to, and again after the training, the investigators will assess
patients' levels of oxytocin, inflammation, and self-reported emotional numbing and social
connectedness. The investigators will also assess their neural response during a video task
that assesses their ability to accurately read others' emotions. The investigators
hypothesize that oxytocin, neural activity, and inflammation will predict social numbing,
isolation, and empathy, and also that CBCT will positively impact the social outcomes that
will pave the way toward health and well-being.
Thirty otherwise medically healthy males between the ages of 25 and 55 who have previously
met criteria for PTSD and have undergone prolonged exposure therapy (PET) yet continue to
report emotional numbing symptoms as a chief complaint will be assessed for baseline levels
of plasma oxytocin (OT), markers of pro-inflammatory cytokines, total mRNA expression in
peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), self-reported emotional numbing and social
connectedness, and empathy. Real-world social connectedness will be assessed using an
Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) for two days, which will randomly record 50 second
snippets of audio every 9 minutes and which will allow for quantification of time spent with
others. Measures of empathy will include empathic accuracy during a dynamic empathic
accuracy (EA) video task, which asks participants to rate what story-tellers are feeling
while they tell positively and negatively valenced autobiographical stories. Because
previous studies have shown that PTSD may interfere with subtle social processing skills and
because one of the primary aims of this proposal is to uncover specific biomarkers related
to self-reported emotional numbing, the investigators will also assess eye gaze and arousal
covariance (correlation between skin conductance of video subject and that of study
participant) during the EA task. Following baseline assessments, participants will
participate in 8 weeks of CBCT, which entails twice-weekly meetings consisting of didactic
information sessions and approximately 20 minutes of CBCT practice. Participants will be
asked to practice at home for 20 minutes per day, and will be given a audio compact discs to
guide at-home meditation. Upon completion of CBCT (Time 2), and again after 8-12 weeks (Time
3), all Time 1 assessments will be repeated.
met criteria for PTSD and have undergone prolonged exposure therapy (PET) yet continue to
report emotional numbing symptoms as a chief complaint will be assessed for baseline levels
of plasma oxytocin (OT), markers of pro-inflammatory cytokines, total mRNA expression in
peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), self-reported emotional numbing and social
connectedness, and empathy. Real-world social connectedness will be assessed using an
Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) for two days, which will randomly record 50 second
snippets of audio every 9 minutes and which will allow for quantification of time spent with
others. Measures of empathy will include empathic accuracy during a dynamic empathic
accuracy (EA) video task, which asks participants to rate what story-tellers are feeling
while they tell positively and negatively valenced autobiographical stories. Because
previous studies have shown that PTSD may interfere with subtle social processing skills and
because one of the primary aims of this proposal is to uncover specific biomarkers related
to self-reported emotional numbing, the investigators will also assess eye gaze and arousal
covariance (correlation between skin conductance of video subject and that of study
participant) during the EA task. Following baseline assessments, participants will
participate in 8 weeks of CBCT, which entails twice-weekly meetings consisting of didactic
information sessions and approximately 20 minutes of CBCT practice. Participants will be
asked to practice at home for 20 minutes per day, and will be given a audio compact discs to
guide at-home meditation. Upon completion of CBCT (Time 2), and again after 8-12 weeks (Time
3), all Time 1 assessments will be repeated.
Inclusion Criteria:
- previously met criteria for PTSD
- completed front-line treatment such as prolonged exposure therapy
- continue to report emotional numbing symptoms as a chief complaint
Exclusion Criteria (at the discretion of the researchers):
- Self-reported psychotic symptoms, current major depression, or suicidal ideation
- Self-reported active alcohol or drug abuse within the past six months
- Self-reported depression serious enough to require hospitalization, or that resulted
in a suicide attempt, within the last year.
- Self-reported auto-immune disease such as lupus, crohn's disease, irritable bowel
syndrome, or rheumatoid arthritis.
- Self-reported use of psychotropic medication, including antidepressants, mood
stabilizers, antipsychotics or chronic benzodiazepine therapy that has changed in the
past 6 weeks.
- Self-reported use of any medication that might strongly affect your stress or immune
systems, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, COX-2 inhibitors,
corticosteroids, beta-blockers or statins.
- Claustrophobia
- Ferromagnetic implants contraindicated by functional MRI (fMRI) safety regulations
We found this trial at
1
site
201 Dowman Dr
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
(404) 727-6123
Principal Investigator: Jennifer S Mascaro, PhD
Phone: 404-558-4461
Emory University Emory University, recognized internationally for its outstanding liberal artscolleges, graduate and professional schools,...
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