An 8-week mindfulness-based contextual cognitive defusion training program, followed by 12 weeks of unsupervised practice, reduced perceived stress and improved memory, psychomotor speed, and mindfulness awareness in community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment. In a randomized trial with 102 participants, those in the program showed significantly greater stress reduction than a health promotion control group at both 8 and 20 weeks. At the individual level, 59% of intervention participants showed reliable improvement in perceived stress at 8 weeks, rising to 75% at 20 weeks, with 39% achieving clinically significant change. No improvement in global cognitive function was seen at the individual level.
A set of candidate measures for assessing phenomenal consciousness in delirium has been developed and validated. Delirium is traditionally considered a disorder of consciousness, but clinical assessments of alertness and arousal are insufficient for a dimensional evaluation. A narrative review of 814 articles identified 14 existing tools across three domains of phenomenal consciousness—prereflective consciousness, phenomenal-sensed experience, and reflective thought—but only one met eligibility criteria for delirium assessment. Fifty-seven new tests were generated using the silent generation technique, later reduced to 26 and then 22 after content validity evaluation. The scale average content validity index was 0.89, inter-rater agreement ranged from 80% to 97%, and face validity was 100% positive. The Flesch Reading Ease Score was 91.6, indicating very easy readability. Early validation results are promising.