Effects of Mindfulness on Brain Functioning in Depressed Patients

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF SURREY · Dec 13, 2022

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

Background and rationale

Major Depression is one of the leading contributors to the burden of disease world-wide. While there are established treatments, a considerable proportion of patients do not respond sufficiently. About a third of people who suffer from depression develop an increasingly chronic and recurrent course that is accompanied by progressive changes in brain structure and functioning. These changes act to prevent recovery and play an important role in conferring an increased risk for associated physical and neurodegenerative disorders.

Training in mindfulness helps patient...

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • 1. A current diagnosis of Major Depression as assessed by SAGE-SR (Series of Assessments to Guide Evaluation Self Report (Brodey et al., 2018).
• • 2. A chronic or recurrent lifetime history of depression, with either chronic persistence of symptoms or a history of at least three previous episodes of depression, two of which needed to have occurred during the last two years.
• • 3. Self-reported severity of current symptoms on a clinical level as indicated by a PHQ-9 score of 10 or more.
• • 4. Age 18 to 65 thus excluding cases of late life depression given that such cases might differ in aetiology.
• • 5. Fluency in spoken and written English.
• • 6. Have individual access to a computer or mobile device with internet connection and video link.
• • 7. Fully committed to the intervention and assessments as assessed by the Participation Form.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • 1. History of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, current abuse of alcohol or other substances, organic mental disorder, pervasive developmental delay, primary diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder or eating disorder, or regular non-suicidal self-injury.
• • 2. Current treatment with CBT more than once a month.
• • 3. Regular meditation practice (meditating more than once per week).
• • 4. Inability to complete research assessments through difficulty with English, visual impairment, or cognitive difficulties.
• • 5. We will allow patients who are currently taking antidepressants into the study provided that their medication has not been changed during the last four weeks before entry into the study.
• • 6. People with heart pacemakers and clips or other metal items, which have been implanted into the body by a surgeon. This is because they would not safe in the brain scanner.
• • 7. Suffer from claustrophobia.

Trial Officials