The Effect of Mindfulness on Cognition and Emotion Following Acquired Brain Injury

Summary

Can mindfulness help with attention and emotion difficulties after a brain injury?

People who have a brain injury often have problems with their attention and emotions. This study will see if a short mindfulness task can help with these problems. So far, there are not many studies looking at this and those that do show mixed results. When being mindful someone is aware of their attention and focuses on the present moment without passing judgement. This study focuses on over-selectivity and selective attention to threat after a brain injury. These are two concepts involved in attention and emotion problems. Over-selectivity is when someone focuses on only one thing around them and misses other key things. Selective attention to threat is when someone's focus is drawn to something around them that is seen as threatening. This has been shown to cause and keep anxious feelings going. This research will see if a short mindfulness task can help those with a brain injury by reducing overselectivity and selective attention to threat on two tasks. Participants will be recruited from NHS and non-NHS brain injury services. The study will take around two hours to complete for each participant. In summary, this study looks to see if a specific mindfulness exercise can be helpful for specific attention and emotion problems. It could be a first step in making treatment better and giving more treatment options for those with a brain injury.

Conditions

• Injuries, Brain

Interventions

OTHER

Mindfulness intervention

A 10 minute mindfulness of breath exercise

OTHER

Control intervention (unfocused attention)

A 10 minute unfocused attention intervention - participants are asked to let their mind wander on anything that comes to mind.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• NORFOLK COMMUNITY HEALTH AND CARE NHS TRUST

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• NORTHAMPTONSHIRE HEALTHCARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Headway Cambridgeshire

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Headway Essex

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Headway Norfolk and Waveney

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Icanho, Livability

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• St Andrew's Healthcare

  collaborator OTHER

• Partnerships in Care

  collaborator OTHER

• University of East Anglia

  lead OTHER

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

2017-07-31

Primary Completion

2018-01-31

Completion

2018-01-31

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations