Mindfulness Meditation for Epilepsy

Summary

In one-third of epileptic patients treated in France, seizures persist despite drug treatment. These so-called "refractory" epilepsies are among the most severe. Only a minority of patients with refractory epilepsy can undergo surgery. The other options available are based on brain or vagus nerve stimulation interventions which clinical effectiveness is still being studied. Alternative therapies are needed both to decrease the frequency of patients' seizures and to improve their quality of life.

The practice of mindfulness meditation has recently been included in the recommendations of the International League Against Epilepsy in order to alleviate anxiety or depression comorbid symptoms.

This study falls within this framework by targeting two aspects of the pathology.

Conditions

• Epilepsy
• Healthy Subjects

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mindfulness meditation training

Patients will be able to benefit from mindfulness meditation training at the rate of 1h30 in the morning and 1h30 in the afternoon. During this training, patients will be invited to share with the psychologist their vision of mindfulness meditation and their expectations of this practice. The psychologist will then introduce what mindfulness is and how the sessions will take place. Several sessions guided by the psychologist will then be offered to the patient (body scan, focused attention, mindfulness movements...).

BEHAVIORAL

Therapeutic education

Patients will benefit from a 2-hour interview which will be conducted by the psychologist associated with the project. The aim of this interview is to help patients better understand their disease in order to adopt the right behaviors on a daily basis. This session will inform patients about their disease, its origins, its treatment, the difficulties it causes and the means to remedy it. The objective of this session is to better understand and manage epilepsy and to enable patients to take an active part in the process of care and management of the disease. No specific instructions will be given at the end of this interview.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de l'Image, INSERM UMR1099 Rennes

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Centre Hospitalier Guillaume Régnier, RENNES

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Rennes University Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Isabelle MERLET, PhD · LTSI - INSERM UMR 1099

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-01-14

Primary Completion

2024-06-06

Completion

2024-06-23

Countries

• France

Study Locations