JMIR Formative Research
June 12, 2026
Clare Tsz Kiu Yu, Alex Pak Lik Tsang, Kelly Ka Yu Chan et al.
Adolescent anxiety is a growing public health concern associated with significant social and emotional impairment. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown promise in reducing anxiety and improving well-being; however, engagement remains challenging. Virtual reality (VR)-based delivery may enhance immersion and attention, potentially addressing barriers of traditional mindfulness...
JMIR Formative Research
September 30, 2025
Yan Ma, Peter M. Wayne, Janet M Mullington et al.
While mindfulness meditation (MM) apps have gained popularity as a tool for promoting sleep, research focusing on bedtime mindfulness practice and app usage is limited. As the first step toward understanding the efficacy and mechanisms of such bedtime practice and to inform future investigations, the goal of this pilot study was to explore the feasibility of app-guided bedtime MM practice with...
JMIR Formative Research
August 22, 2025
Judith Borghouts, Elizabeth V Eikey, Cinthia De Leon et al.
BackgroundMindfulness-based apps can be an effective and accessible resource for mental health support. However, little is known about their use outside of research settings and what user characteristics relate to app use. ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the characteristics of people who decided to use, not use, or stop using Headspace within the context of a large-scale public deployment,...
JMIR Formative Research
July 17, 2025
Satish Jaiswal, Jason Nan, Seth Dizon et al.
5 citations
Depression in children is a concerning societal issue and can be associated with poor academic performance, school dropout, and poor overall quality of life. Additionally, child depression is often associated with parallel stress and depression in parents. This scenario highlights the urgent need for the development and implementation of accessible and scalable solutions that may cobenefit...
JMIR Formative Research
June 11, 2025
Tovan Lew, Natnaiel M Dubale, Erik Doose et al.
3 citations
Undergraduate students frequently experience negative emotional states and sleep quality, which is believed to have worsened following the COVID-19 pandemic. This study piloted the use of a popular mobile mindfulness app (Calm) as a potential intervention to improve state depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep quality in undergraduate students attending a Canadian university, following the...
JMIR Formative Research
March 11, 2025
Mollie R Cummins, Julia Ivanova, Hiral Soni et al.
3 citations
In the postpandemic era, telemedicine continues to enable mental health care access for many people, especially persons living in areas with mental health care provider shortages. However, as lawmakers consider long-term telemedicine policy decisions, some question the safety and appropriateness of prescribing via telemedicine, and whether there should be requirements for in-person evaluation,...
JMIR Formative Research
January 24, 2025
Lia Antico, Judson A. Brewer
2 citations
Physician burnout is widespread in health care systems, with harmful consequences on physicians, patients, and health care organizations. Mindfulness training (MT) has proven effective in reducing burnout; however, its time-consuming requirements often pose challenges for physicians who are already struggling with their busy schedules. This study aimed to design a short and pragmatic digital MT...
JMIR Formative Research
January 17, 2025
Silvia Rizzi, Maria Chiara Pavesi, Alessia Moser et al.
BackgroundPregnancy is a complex period characterized by significant transformations. How a woman adapts to these changes can affect her quality of life and psychological well-being. Recently developed digital solutions have assumed a crucial role in supporting the psychological well-being of pregnant women. However, these tools have mainly been developed for women who already present...
JMIR Formative Research
December 3, 2024
Mary L Peng, Joan Monin, Polina Ovchinnikova et al.
4 citations
Psychedelic art (PA) emerged in the 1960s during the psychedelic era; then characterized by visuals induced by the ingestion of psychedelic drugs, it is now an art form known for its vibrant colors, distorted forms, and intricate patterns. Building upon the existing research on art viewing as an effective means to improving physiological and psychological well-being, viewing PA is postulated to...
JMIR Formative Research
October 15, 2024
Morghane Aubert, Céline Clavel, Christine Le Scanff et al.
1 citation
Mindfulness improves well-being, improves emotional regulation, reduces impulses to eat, and is linked to increased physical activity. Mindfulness interventions usually focus on 1 aspect but do not offer an approach to holistically improving lifestyle. This study aims to address this gap by designing and evaluating a holistic mindfulness intervention. Committing to a 12-week intervention with...
JMIR Formative Research
July 25, 2024
Ioannis Iliakis, Maria Anagnostouli, George P Chrousos
1 citation
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the central nervous system, often leading to poor sleep quality and diminished quality of life (QoL) for affected patients. Sleep disturbances in MS do not always correlate linearly with other symptoms such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, or pain. Various approaches, including stress reduction techniques such as...
JMIR Formative Research
May 6, 2024
Kaitlyn Delaney Chappell, Diana Meakins, Melanie Marsh-Joyal et al.
5 citations
Individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) experience cycles of aggressive physical symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fatigue. These acute symptoms regress and return, and chronic symptoms and complications often linger. The nature of the disease can also cause individuals to experience psychological distress including symptoms of anxiety and depression; however, unlike...
JMIR Formative Research
March 4, 2024
Grant Jones, Felipe Herrmann, Adam Bear et al.
2 citations
This study demonstrates that changes in mindfulness predict subsequent changes in well-being in a data set including individuals who recently engaged in psychedelic use.
JMIR Formative Research
January 30, 2024
Caeleigh A Landry, Hugh C Mccall, Janine D Beahm et al.
7 citations
Public safety personnel (PSP) are individuals who work to ensure the safety and security of communities (eg, correctional workers, firefighters, paramedics, and police officers). PSP have a high risk of developing mental disorders and face unique barriers to traditional mental health treatments. The PSP Wellbeing Course is a transdiagnostic, internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy...
JMIR Formative Research
November 28, 2023
George Danias, Jacob Appel
13 citations
Background Psychedelic substances have demonstrated promise in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Significant media coverage has been dedicated to psychedelic medicine, but it is unclear whether the public associates psilocybin with its potential therapeutic benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the...
JMIR Formative Research
November 24, 2023
Grant Jones, Franchesca Castro-Ramirez, Maha Al-Suwaidi et al.
Race-based anxiety is a critical health issue within the Black community. Mindfulness interventions hold promise for treating race-based anxiety in Black Americans; however, there are many barriers that prevent Black Americans from using these treatments, such as low cultural relevance, significant time burdens, and excessive costs. This study is a replication and extension of findings that...
JMIR Formative Research
August 29, 2023
Victoria Amo, Mike Prentice, Falk Lieder
BackgroundEcological momentary interventions open up new and exciting possibilities for delivering mental health interventions and conducting research in real-life environments via smartphones. This makes designing psychotherapeutic ecological momentary interventions a promising step toward cost-effective and scalable digital solutions for improving mental health and understanding the effects...
JMIR Formative Research
August 28, 2023
Marcus Rodriguez, Tory A. Eisenlohr‐Moul, Jared Weisman et al.
BackgroundTraditional in-person psychotherapies are incapable of addressing global mental health needs. Use of computer-based interventions is one promising solution for closing the gap between the amount of global mental health treatment needed and received. ObjectiveAlthough many meta-analyses have provided evidence supporting the efficacy of self-guided, computer-based interventions, most...
JMIR Formative Research
August 16, 2023
Grant Jones, Felipe Herrmann, Matthew K. Nock
7 citations
Race-based anxiety is a substantial health issue for the Black community. Although mindfulness interventions have demonstrated efficacy for alleviating anxiety, three central barriers prevent Black Americans from accessing existing mindfulness treatments: high costs, excessive time commitments, and limited cultural relevance. There is a need for novel mindfulness interventions for the Black...
JMIR Formative Research
October 5, 2022
Muskan Yadav, Sandra L Neate, Craig Hassed et al.
8 citations
Digital health interventions provide a cost effective and accessible means for positive behavior change. However, high participant attrition is common and facilitators for implementation of behaviors are not well understood. The goal of the research was to identify elements of a digital mindfulness course that aided in course completion and implementation of teachings. Inductive thematic...
JMIR Formative Research
June 9, 2022
Sarah Lynn, Julia C. Basso
Background Mindfulness and meditation have a rich historical tradition, and a growing scientific base of evidence supports their use in creating positive psychological and neuroplastic changes for practitioners. Although meditation can be taught in various ways, the scientific community has yet to systematically study the impact of different types of meditation on neuropsychological outcomes,...
JMIR Formative Research
March 10, 2022
Jayaram Thimmapuram, K. Patel, Divya K Madhusudhan et al.
Background Although the benefits of yoga are well established across the world, there are limited studies exploring the long-term interrelation between yoga, meditation, and health. Specifically, there is limited research exploring the differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among regular meditators and nonmeditators. Objective This study explored the differences in 7 domains of...
JMIR Formative Research
November 14, 2021
Thaddeus W W Pace, Katharine H. Zeiders, S. Cook et al.
Background Firefighters are often exposed to occupational stressors that can result in psychological distress (ie, anxiety and depression) and burnout. These occupational stressors have only intensified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely persist in the postpandemic world. Objective To address occupational stressors confronting firefighters, we pilot tested a novel,...
JMIR Formative Research
October 19, 2021
Jeremy L Smith, Jason W Allen, Carla I Haack et al.
Health care provider and trainee burnout results in substantial national and institutional costs and profound social effects. Identifying effective solutions and interventions to cultivate resilience among health care trainees is critical. Although less is known about the mental health needs of physician assistants (PAs) or PA students, accumulating research indicates that they experience...
JMIR Formative Research
May 25, 2021
Aarathi Venkatesan, Holly Krymis, Jenny Scharff et al.
BackgroundAs the need for effective scalable interventions for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and stress has grown, the digital delivery of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has gained interest as a promising intervention in this domain. ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate the changes in perceived stress following a 10-week digital MBSR program that combined an...