Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Carrie E Brintz, Geneva Polser, Rogelio A Coronado et al.
13 citations
In a four-week mindfulness-based intervention for chronic pain, informal home practice—such as brief breathing spaces and mindful daily activities—was linked to improvements in pain interference, physical function, sleep, anxiety, positive affect, and catastrophizing. Formal guided practices like breath meditation and body scans showed no significant association with any outcome. On average, participants completed informal practice on 3.5 days per week for 8.6 minutes per day, and formal practice on 4.3 days per week for 13.5 minutes per day. The findings suggest that for abbreviated mindfulness programs, the type of home practice matters more than the amount of time spent.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Maria Juarez-Reyes, Erica Martinez, Lan Xiao et al.
7 citations
A culturally adapted, remotely delivered mindfulness intervention for Spanish-speaking Latinx patients with breast cancer was feasible and acceptable. All three feasibility benchmarks were met: 75% attended the first session, 96% completed at least 4 of 6 sessions, and 94% rated the program highly on a feasibility scale. Anxiety was significantly reduced at 3 months, though the small change may not be clinically meaningful. Depression declined but not significantly, and sleep did not change. The intervention used a novice facilitator and included cultural adaptations such as language, metaphor, and acknowledgment of spirituality.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2023
Chelsea J Siwik, Shelley R Adler, Patricia J Moran et al.
7 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces depression relapse, but about one-third of graduates relapse within a year. Focus groups with MBCT graduates and teachers revealed that the course is highly valued and sometimes life-changing. However, graduates struggle to maintain mindfulness practices and sustain benefits after the course ends, despite using community groups, apps, or retaking the course. One participant described finishing MBCT as feeling like "falling off a cliff." Both graduates and teachers strongly desired additional support, such as a maintenance program, to help sustain long-term benefits and reduce relapse risk.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Kavita K Mishra, Ivan C Leung, Maria T Chao et al.
5 citations
Mindfulness-based group medical visits (MB-GMVs) delivered via telehealth are a feasible and acceptable way to increase access to mindfulness-based interventions for racially and ethnically diverse patients undergoing cancer treatment. In a quality improvement project, 80% of referred patients enrolled; 90% attended at least three of four weekly sessions. Participants were 22% Asian, 14% Black, 17% Latino, and 45% non-Latino White; 65% were female; median age was 54; and 80% had metastatic cancer. On final evaluations, 87% rated the series as excellent, 81% strongly agreed they liked the group medical visit format, and 92% would definitely recommend it. Qualitative themes included empowerment and connectedness.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2023
Charity B Breneman, Matthew J Reinhard, Nathaniel Allen et al.
5 citations
Combining mindfulness meditation and auricular acupuncture improved mental-health functioning, fatigue, depression symptoms, and overall Gulf War Illness (GWI) severity in veterans compared to a health education program. The complementary and integrative health (CIH) group also showed reduced pain interference at the end of treatment and at three-month follow-up, while the education group experienced worsening pain. Findings suggest a possible beneficial effect of combining these two therapies for reducing fatigue, musculoskeletal, and mood/cognition symptoms in veterans with GWI.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
David Victorson, Kavita K Mishra, Joseph Sauer et al.
4 citations
Brief audio-based mindfulness meditation delivered during daily radiation therapy for prostate cancer is feasible, acceptable, and may reduce fatigue, sleep disturbance, and intolerance of uncertainty. In a randomized trial, 76% of approached men enrolled; the final program retained 89% of participants. Compared to a relaxing music control, those receiving mindfulness showed significantly less uncertainty intolerance at 4 weeks and significantly lower fatigue and sleep disturbance scores at 3 months follow-up. The audio recordings were delivered daily starting week 2 of radiation for 4 weeks. The findings suggest such self-management approaches hold potential to alleviate common side effects of prostate cancer radiation therapy.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2025
Stephanie Voss, Ishaan Patel, Claire Skowron et al.
3 citations
A 6-week yoga intervention designed to improve interoception—the sense of internal body signals—was feasible and highly acceptable for people with mixed chronic pain. Of 24 participants who started, 79% completed post-intervention testing, with an average attendance rate of 69% and no serious adverse events. Preliminary analyses showed statistically significant increases in both interoceptive sensibility and interoceptive accuracy, along with reduced pain. The two measures of interoception were not correlated. The intervention shows promise for improving pain and multiple dimensions of interoception, particularly conscious attention to the body.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Angela C Incollingo Rodriguez, Benjamin C Nephew, Justin J Polcari et al.
3 citations
African American/Black participants with chronic pain and depression who took part in Integrative Medical Group Visits (IMGV) showed reduced pain severity from baseline to 9 weeks, a change not seen in White participants. However, White participants experienced reduced pain severity from 9 to 21 weeks, while African American/Black participants showed no significant change during that later period. At baseline, African American/Black participants had higher pain severity and differed in age, work status, and comorbidities. The findings suggest race-based differences in response to mindfulness-based integrative treatments, highlighting the need for further investigation into how such heterogeneity relates to health disparities.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2025
Dorothy T Chiu, Forest Fein, Ariana Thompson-Lastad et al.
2 citations
Integrating a mindfulness elective into a year-long job training program for diverse, low-income emerging adults improved mindfulness, life satisfaction, and self-compassion while reducing stress. Over two years, 195 participants (mean age 22.3, 94.4% from racially and ethnically minoritized groups) took the elective. In Year 1, mindfulness participants showed greater mindfulness (+8.4) and life satisfaction (+10.3) and lower stress (-8.2); controls showed no changes. In Year 2, both 12-week and 6-week groups improved in mindfulness, life satisfaction, self-compassion, connectedness, and mind-body connection, with larger gains in the longer course. Focus groups confirmed that the elective supported self-care, health, and professional development, suggesting such integration can promote mental health equity.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Chien Yi Maximilian Png, Darshan H Mehta, Anahita Dua et al.
2 citations
A perioperative mind-body intervention (MBI) consisting of two seven-minute guided meditations—including diaphragmatic breathing, body scans, and guided imagery focused on the leg receiving surgery—was designed for patients undergoing peripheral vascular interventions under procedural sedation. The intervention was developed using the ORBIT model: Phase 1a involved literature review and protocol drafting; Phase 1b used a modified Delphi process with a multi-disciplinary expert panel, reaching consensus after three iterations. The resulting MBI aims to decrease perioperative anxiety and facilitate patient compliance during surgery. A prospective pilot study is planned to test feasibility.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Frederick M Hecht, Rebecca S Crane, Patricia Moran et al.
2 citations
Teaching quality in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses, measured by the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC), shows fair to good inter-rater reliability depending on the number of raters. Using a single rater, reliability was fair (intraclass correlation coefficients 0.33–0.56 across six domains); with three raters, reliability was good (0.6–0.8). Among 152 MBSR students, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep, and social role function improved from before the course to two and four months later (improvements of 2.3 to 6.3 points). Higher MBI:TAC ratings predicted greater anxiety reduction: each one-unit increase in composite teaching rating was associated with a 0.31-point greater decrease in anxiety score. No significant relationships were found for other health domains.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Katherine T Morrison, Kristin M Jensen, Angela Keniston et al.
2 citations
A pilot forest bathing intervention for medical residents, guided by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy framework, was associated with significantly improved mindfulness and increased feelings of calm, vitality, or creativity, along with decreased anxiety and depression. Nonsignificant trends toward reduced burnout and irritability were also observed. Fourteen of fifteen participants completed pre- and post-participation surveys. The findings suggest that forest bathing may improve psychological wellbeing and mindfulness among healthcare providers, warranting further study.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2025
Frederick M. Hecht, Rebecca S. Crane
1 citation
Mindfulness-Based Programs (MBPs) are increasingly used in health care, education, criminal justice, workplaces, and community settings worldwide, with some becoming standard care in publicly funded systems. Efficacy and cost-effectiveness research shows promising results, but assessing and ensuring fidelity of program delivery is still at an early stage. Without robust approaches to teaching skill and adherence to program form, dissemination and implementation could be compromised. This special collection presents research and practice on MBP intervention fidelity in teacher training, implementation, and governance. The introductory paper summarizes the collection, analyzes the field's current state, and outlines steps needed to advance understanding of these issues.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Eunmi Kim, Diane Joss, Frannie Marin et al.
1 citation
This registered clinical trial protocol describes a planned study of Heart-Smile Training (HST), a compassion-based meditation program that cultivates awareness of heart-area bodily signals (interoception), for people with depression. The study aims to test the feasibility of the intervention and research procedures and to investigate neurocardiac mechanisms, specifically changes in the Heartbeat Evoked Potential measured by EEG. Fifty participants will be randomly assigned to a 4-week HST group or a waitlist control. Outcomes include depression severity, EEG gamma activity, heart rate variability, and psychological measures of self-compassion, mindfulness, and social connectedness. Results are not yet available.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2026
Haley D M Schuman, Raèf Mina, Sofia Barkova et al.
Healthcare providers in Canada hold cautious to supportive views on psychedelic-assisted therapy, with ketamine pragmatically accepted for its rapid effects but raising concerns about commercialization, psilocybin seen as promising for end-of-life existential distress yet viewed with mixed feelings, and MDMA considered useful for trauma but constrained by neurotoxicity worries and regulatory barriers. An ethical tension emerged between access to medical assistance in dying and restrictions on psychedelic-assisted therapy in end-of-life care, highlighting policy inconsistencies. Providers emphasized the need for substance-specific guidelines, interdisciplinary education, and evidence-informed regulatory reform.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2025
Cynthia J Price, Dana Dharmakaya Colgan, Erin Abu-Rish Blakeney et al.
A pilot program integrating Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) into a chronic pain clinic proved feasible and showed significant improvements. Of 70 referred patients, 41 started the program and 30 completed eight individual sessions with a trained massage therapist. Statistically and clinically significant improvements were found in physical function, fatigue, anxiety, sleep, social roles, and pain interference, along with large effects on interoceptive sensibility and emotion regulation. MABT offers a promising non-pharmacological approach for chronic pain.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2025
Keturah R Faurot, Isabel Roth, Elondra Harr et al.
A telephone-delivered mindfulness training program for informal caregivers of African Americans with dementia living in rural North Carolina was feasible and acceptable. Of those screened, 78% enrolled, 86% completed the study, and 88% attended at least six of eight weekly sessions. Caregivers reported reduced perceived burden and increased positive emotions from before to after the intervention. Both inhibitory and prospective intolerance of uncertainty also decreased. Participants valued the program, especially the telephone format. The findings suggest this approach may help reduce caregiver burden in underserved rural populations and warrants testing in a randomized trial.