Spirituality Teaching Program for Depressed Adults

Summary

Major depression is a widely spread health problem in Canada. Recent research suggests a potential role for religion/spirituality in the prevention of and recovery from depression in adults. The purpose this study was to assess the efficacy of a home-based Spirituality Teaching Program for adults in the treatment of major depression. The objectives of the study were to determine:

1. whether the Spirituality Teaching Program is efficacious in improving depression severity, response rate, and remission rate in adults,
2. whether efficacy is maintained long term (over a 16 week period).

Conditions

• Major Depression

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Spirituality Teaching Program

The Spirituality Teaching Program is a home study program delivered through audio CDs over an 8-week period. The program consists of weekly 90 minute teaching sessions, based on the content of a workshop developed to assist users in developing a more spiritual outlook on life and coping resources. Using didactic comment and storytelling, the following spiritual concepts are addressed in the sessions: self-transcendence, connectedness, forgiveness, self-acceptance, detachment, compassion and gratitude. Each session concludes with a relevant guided visualization practice. In addition, a 15-minute progressive relaxation exercise is included that is to be used on a daily basis. The presented content is nondenominational to ensure compatibility with any beliefs participants may hold.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Calgary, Dept. of Psychiatry & Dept. of Community Health Sciences

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Southwest Behavioral Health Sciences

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Alberta Health services

  collaborator OTHER

• Arizona School of Health Sciences

  collaborator OTHER

• The Center for Mind-Body Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• Canadian Institute of Natural and Integrative Medicine

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Badri Rickhi, MD · Canadian Institute of Natural and Integrative Medicine

• John Toews, MD · Canadian Institute of Natural and Integrative Medicine

• Sabine Moritz, MSc · Alberta Health Services (current)

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2005-01-31

Primary Completion

2006-12-31

Completion

2008-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations