The Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation Study

Summary

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

• Immune System Processes
• Inflammatory Activation and Modulation
• ANS Function

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive-Based Compassion Training

Eight-week training in compassion meditation, using a protocol developed by Geshe Lobsang Negi, Ph.D. of Emory University

BEHAVIORAL

Mindful Attention Training

Eight week training in mindful attention, using a protocol developed by B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D.

BEHAVIORAL

Adult Health Education Curriculum

Eight week training in health and wellness, using a curriculum developed specifically for this study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Emory University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Arizona

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Charles Raison, MD · University of Arizona

• Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD · Emory University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

25 Years

Max Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-09-30

Primary Completion

2014-05-31

Completion

2014-05-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations