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The effects of Mindfulness Meditation on hallucination and delusion in severe schizophrenia patients with more than 20 years’ medical history

Jia-Ling Sheng, Yan Yan, Xianghong Yang, Ti-Fei Yuan, Dong-Hong Cui

CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics September 28, 2018 DOI: 10.1111/cns.13067 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Case report Peer reviewed
Sample size 5
Population Five male chronic schizophrenia patients with severe, drug-treatment-resistant hallucinations and delusions, average age 55.8 years and average medical history of 30.2 years
Intervention Mindfulness meditation
Duration 8-month intervention with follow-up at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 weeks and 8 months
Measures Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
Topics Meditation
Key findings The authors report that in five chronic schizophrenia patients, hallucinations and delusions had persisted without change for the prior eight years and showed little change during the first two weeks of an eight-month mindfulness meditation intervention. The letter does not report results beyond that point in the available text.

Abstract

Dear Editor, Mindfulness meditation alleviates symptoms of distress, pain, and many chronic diseases.1‒3 In schizophrenic patients, mindfulness intervention leads to better psychosocial functioning,4 improved positive emotions,5 and reduced negative symptoms.6 It is unknown if mindfulness meditation could reduce positive symptoms in the chronic schizophrenia patients. Five male patients, averaged age at 55.80 ± 9.45 years old (ranged 44‐66 years), with averaged medical history of 30.20 ± 8.53 years (ranged 21‐41 years) were recruited for present study. All patients received active antipsychotics treatment upon admission (at higher doses than patients on average): chlorpromazine equality averaged at 670.00 ± 176.47 mg/d (ranged 487.5‐900). These patients demonstrated severe and drug treatment‐re‐ sistant hallucination/delusions (score >5; Details in Table 1). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Short Form‐36 Health Survey (SF‐36), and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) were measured by an expert clinical psychologist. The study has been approved by the ethic committee of medical research in the Minzheng hospital, and written informed consents were obtained from all patients for the study, or the guardians/next of kin of these participants when in need. Informed consent was as well obtained for the publication of this case report. This clin‐ ical trial has been registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (https://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx). The registration number is ChiCTR‐OOB‐17014038. Registered December 19, 2017 (retro‐ spectively registered). Timeline: February 2017: Recruitment of patients and start of the trial. Intervention: 8 months, group intervention, and individual training. Follow‐up: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 weeks and 8 months after start point of intervention for the hallucination and delusion symptoms, and relevant scales. Mindfulness meditation was performed with following proce‐ dures. In the first 8 weeks, the group intervention (90 minutes each, led by two experienced tutors) was conducted per week, and after the period, the group intervention frequency was once per month. During the continuous 8 months period, the patients performed mindfulness meditation per day for 20‐40 minutes. The records were double checked and confirmed by the tutors. The data were an‐ alyzed with SPSS 18.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA); paired‐ sample t test was used for differences before and after intervention. The hallucination and delusion symptoms persisted and exhib‐ ited no change during the past 8 years (measured at 8 years ago, 4 years ago, 2 weeks ago, and baseline time point) prior to this study. Following mindfulness training intervention, the hallucination and delusion symptoms did not exhibit much change in the first 2 weeks

Comparable studies

Other case reports and case series on meditation, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Brain sources of EEG gamma frequency during volitionally meditation-induced, altered states of consciousness, and experience of the self Advanced meditator 2001 Case study n = 1
Mindfulness Meditation for Alcohol Relapse Prevention: A Feasibility Pilot Study Adult alcohol-dependent graduates of an intensive outpatient program 2008 Prospective case series n = 19
How does it feel to lack a sense of boundaries? A case study of a long-term mindfulness meditator. A single long-term mindfulness practitioner (S) with 40 years of practice in... 2015 Qualitative case study n = 1
Loving‐kindness meditation to enhance recovery from negative symptoms of schizophrenia Individuals suffering from schizophrenia-spectrum disorders with persistent negative... 2009 Case study
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Problem Gambling A female problem gambler 2011 Case study n = 1

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