Building the Path to Resilience in Preterm Infants: Mindfulness-based Intervention

Summary

Yearly 15 million babies worldwide are born too soon. 10% of these preterm births occur very early before 32 weeks of gestation and these newborns are at high risk for neurodevelopmental disorders later in life. Neurocognitive disorders now touch 27% of the European population, and 5% or 3.3 million children suffer from social and learning difficulties, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders and autism, whose rates are increasing and prematurity contributes to this rise. Cognition, and socio-emotional competence are based on intact brain structure and functions that are formed early in development, both pre- and post-natally, and are heavily influenced by environment. Ramon y Cajal in his studies on the making of the brain clearly stated: "The total arborisation of a neuron represents the graphic history of conflicts suffered during its developmental life". Understanding how environment affects early brain development and defining timing and mode of early interventions to enhance brain development in high risk populations, such as preterm infants, is currently acknowledged as a fundamental endeavor for the scientific community (see guidelines of the National Scientific Council for the Developing Child). Interventions to improve and maintain cognitive and socio-emotional skills are to become an essential tool of medical care for high-risk infants. The goal of this study is to test the impact of a Mindfulness-based intervention - considered to target brain networks previously described as affected by prematurity and improve socio-emotional and executive functions. Mindfulness based intervention (intentional self-regulation of attention) will be performed in 10-13 year old preterm children, both from our prior studied preterm cohorts. Overall, our planned research will fill an important gap in our theoretical understanding of the brain vulnerability linked to prematurity. Even more importantly, the compelling issue of how to build cognitive and emotional resilience in preterm children will be addressed by preventing the onset of difficulties and reducing them with appropriate interventions.

Conditions

• Preterm Birth
• Cognitive Dysfunction
• Behavioral Problem

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness-based intervention

Mindfulness-based intervention: The proposed MBI was designed based on well-known MBI programs including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and adapted to adolescents' needs and language. The program consisted of 8 weekly sessions in groups of up to 8 participants, lasting 1h30. Two MBI groups were offered per week (Wednesdays and Fridays) and participants had the possibility to choose the most convenient day for them. Two instructors were present for each group throughout the intervention.For each session one theme was addressed, such as attention and the stabilisation of the focus of attention, bodily sensations, breath, emotions, thoughts, compassion, stress, stress reactivity and coping strategies.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Pediatric Clinical Research Platform

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-09-01

Primary Completion

2017-03-15

Completion

2025-08-01