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Examining Cognitive Mechanisms of Clinical Improvement Following Mindfulness Based Therapy for Depressed Individuals

NCT02457936 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 52

Last updated 2024-11-20

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Depression one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Individuals suffering from depression typically exhibit impairments in various mental abilities, such as the ability to effectively direct and control attention and the ability to switch between thinking about different things and concepts (commonly referred to as "cognitive flexibility").

Mindfulness meditation training is a technique which involves focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It has been well documented to improve depressive symptoms and prevent recurrence of depressive episodes, yet little is known about how mindfulness does so and what are the underlying mental mechanisms involved. Here the investigators propose to examine the efficacy of an 8-week mindfulness training program in improving the ability to direct and control attention, as well as in cognitive flexibility.

Individuals diagnosed with recurrent depression will undergo an 8-week mindfulness training program. Participants' depressive symptoms as well as their performance on measures of attention and cognitive flexibility will be examined. Participants will be assigned to mindfulness training or a wait-list control group. Half of the participants will be examined before and after the mindfulness training program and the other half will be tested 8-weeks apart and then begin their training.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

8 weekly meetings in which basic mindfulness and meditation skills are taught, such as breathing meditation, body scan meditation, open awareness meditation, movement meditation, and targeting depression related cognitions and emotions in a mindful manner, as well as awareness exercises, group discussions, and daily home meditation practice routines

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

    collaborator NIH

  • Massachusetts General Hospital

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Jonathan Greenberg, PhD · Massachusetts General Hospital

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2015-04-30
Primary Completion
2016-04-30
Completion
2016-04-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02457936 on ClinicalTrials.gov