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Psychobiological Effects of Meditation on Offenders With Psychopathy

NCT02894203 · Status: UNKNOWN · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 60

Last updated 2016-09-09

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The investigators aim to explore the psychobiological effects of a 5-day meditation intervention on offenders within dangerous and severe personality disorders (DSPD) unit at HMP Whitemoor. DSPD unit accommodates offenders with psychopathy or with two or more personality disorders. DPSD unit provides them with a 5-year rehabilitation programme that consists of group and individual therapy and aims to improve their self-regulation.

This project includes a total of 60 participants and has two major methodological innovations. First, it will include yoga as an active control group that will be matched to the meditation intervention (which means it will have the same length and the same social components) and a passive control group that will be following their usual regimen. Thus, the effects of meditation will be contrasted with another type of intervention and with not receiving any intervention.

The second methodological innovation is the combination of psychological and biological measures. Psychological measures include questionnaires (emotion regulation, mindfulness, stress) and cognitive measures (attention,empathy,behavioural control). Biological measures include EEG to measure brain activity related to empathy; gene expression and protein interlukin-6 to measure changes in immune system; and stress related hormone cortisol. The investigators also aim to determine to whom does meditation benefit the most by exploring how initial expectations of meditation, personality, mood and previous life adversity predict outcomes of meditation or yoga. The data will be collected at three time points: at baseline, immediately after and 10 weeks after the 5-day intervention.

The investigators expect that meditation and yoga will similarly improve mental and physical health. If this hypothesis are confirmed, these results will extend previous findings on the benefits of meditation and yoga to vulnerable populations, and would provide a cost-effective addition to prisoner rehabilitation.

Conditions

  • Mindfulness
  • Yoga

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness

BEHAVIORAL

Yoga

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging

    collaborator OTHER

  • Coventry University

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

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

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2016-09-30
Primary Completion
2017-02-28
Completion
2017-02-28

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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 NCT02894203 on ClinicalTrials.gov