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Compassion Meditation for Older Adults

NCT03964246 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 25

Last updated 2024-07-05

Study results available
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Summary

Some older Veterans with psychological distress may under-utilize mental health services due to perceived stigma of symptom-focused interventions. This study was designed to examine the feasibility of a strengths-based compassion training intervention with Veterans ages \> 55 years with anxiety or depressive symptoms. Although this study was focused on feasibility if successful, this line of research could open the door to a novel and effective treatment that widens acceptance by older Veterans with psychological distress.

Conditions

  • Anxiety and Mood Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Compassion Meditation (CM) intervention

10 weekly 90-minute sessions. Sessions 1-3 assist participants in basic mindfulness breathing practices; sessions 4-8 focus on personal analysis of factors underlying difficulties with compassion for self or others; sessions 9 and 10 review content and assist with relapse prevention. \[These were planned as in-person groups but due to the COVID-19 social distancing requirements that started after initiation of cohort 1, the investigators had to retool the intervention for telehealth delivery.\]

OTHER

Healthy Aging Psychoeducation

The investigators planned to administer a 10-week psychoeducational in-person group focused on topics in healthy aging to examine its feasibility as a control condition for a subsequent randomized controlled trial. This would include use of an existing library of videotaped community-focused talks, such as increasing happiness, mental resilience and health, nutrition, and physical activity. \[Unfortunately, with the switch to telehealth format necessitated by the COVID-19 social distancing requirements, the consensus of the investigators and staff was that these proved too be too dry/"dull/academic" to be a credible attention control in a telehealth format for the target population.\]

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • VA Office of Research and Development

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • Barton W. Palmer, PhD · VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
55 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-10-01
Primary Completion
2022-04-30
Completion
2022-06-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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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 NCT03964246 on ClinicalTrials.gov