Transcendental Meditation for the improvement of health and wellbeing in community-dwelling dementia caregivers [TRANSCENDENT]: a randomised wait-list controlled trial

A pilot trial tested whether Transcendental Meditation (TM) training could reduce stress and improve quality of life, mood, and cognitive performance in people caring for family members with dementia. Seventeen caregivers were randomly assigned to a 12-week TM program or a wait-list control. The TM group showed significantly greater improvement in response speed on a cognitive test compared to the control group. Changes in other measures of stress, depression, and quality of life did not reach statistical significance, though trends favored TM. Adverse events were mostly mild and transient. Because the study was small, no firm conclusions can be drawn about TM's effectiveness for dementia caregivers.

Study at a glance

Abstract

BackgroundDementia is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder affecting an estimated 24.3 million people across the globe. The burden on those caring for people with dementia is substantial, with widespread implications for the caregiver, the care recipient and the community. Relaxation techniques, such as Transcendental Meditation® (TM), have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in healthy workers; similar benefits are anticipated in dementia caregivers. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether TM can improve psychological stress, quality of life, affect and cognitive performance in dementia caregivers.MethodsThe study was conducted as a pilot prospective, multi-centre, community-based, randomised wait-list controlled trial. Community-dwelling caregivers of persons with diagnosed dementia were randomly assigned to a 12-week (14-hour) TM training program or wait-list control. Participants were assessed for quality of life, stress, affect, cognitive performance and adverse effects. The feasibility of the study was also evaluated.ResultsSeventeen caregivers were recruited and randomised. Improvements in WebNeuro response speed scores over time were significantly (p = 0.03) greater in the TM group relative to control. Changes between groups over time in all other primary and secondary outcome measures did not reach statistical significance. However, there was a trend toward greater improvement in WebNeuro stress, depression and negativity bias scores in the TM group. Adverse events were reported amongst 63 % of TM-treated subjects; however, events were generally transient, of mild-moderate intensity and only ‘possibly’ related to TM.ConclusionsDementia caregivers exposed to TM demonstrated varying degrees of improvement in several measures of cognitive function, mood, quality of life and stress following exposure to TM. However, as the pilot study was underpowered, no firm conclusions can be made about the effectiveness of TM in this caregiver population. Findings from full-scale trials are now warranted.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12613000184774 (Registered 15th February 2013).