Mindfulness Intervention for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (MICAS)
Abstract
This study will collect preliminary data on the effect of mindfulness meditation on healing psychological distress among adult survivors of child sexual abuse. The study also will evaluate blood inflammatory markers to assess whether meditation improves these parameters. In addition to assessing preliminary data on efficacy, the pilot study will evaluate the feasibility of enrolling and maintaining participants in this patient population. We intend to use the pilot data generated herein in an application for a larger National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant.
Twenty adult survivors of child sexual abuse will be recruited from the Baltimore area. Participants will be required to be in concurrent psychological therapy and have a recommendation of his or her therapist to take part in the intervention. Following informed consent, participants will attend a two-month class of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), conducted by an experienced teacher. Participants will attend class once a week for two hours, and be asked to practice meditation and yoga at home for approximately 20-30 minutes per day.
Standardized questionnaires measuring psychological distress, depression and symptoms of trauma survival will be administered at baseline, week 3, week 8 and week 24 of the intervention. Blood samples will be drawn at baseline and in week 8, and assessed for pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Data analysis will focus on change in symptoms over time, comparing treatment groups. Analyses will be done on an intent-to-treat basis, with all participants included in the analysis regardless of degree of compliance. To fulfill the objective of collecting feasibility data, we will analyze the degree to which participants with moderate depression have been located, enrolled and maintained the study. We will evaluate attendance at assessment visits, classes, and assess the frequency of daily home practice.
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