BACKGROUND: Mindfulness meditation (MM) practices constitute an important group of meditative practices that have received growing attention. The aim of the present paper was to systematically review current evidence on the neurobiological changes and clinical benefits related to MM practice in psychiatric disorders, in physical illnesses and in healthy subjects. METHOD: A literature search was...
OBJECTIVE: Cancer patients experience many negative psychological symptoms including stress, anxiety, and depression. This distress is not limited to the patient, as their partners also experience many psychological challenges. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs have demonstrated clinical benefit for a variety of chronic illnesses, including cancer. This is the first study to...
Abstract Two studies of a mindfulness training programme are presented. Study 1 reports on a pilot investigation of the impact on well‐being of the Breathworks mindfulness‐based pain management programme. Significant positive change was found on self‐report measures of depression, outlook, catastrophizing and pain self‐efficacy in the Intervention Group, but not the Comparison Group....
The study explored population-based service planning for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Evidence suggests the usefulness of MBCT in relapse prevention for individuals reporting three or more major depressive episodes. Depression data were from the Canadian Community Health Survey. A simulation model estimated recurrence rates and population sizes to sustain MBCT therapists (each...
Depression is a chronic recurring illness that affects more than 120 million people worldwide. Drugs increasing the synaptic availability of serotonin and norepinephrine (biogenic amine-based agents) have been used to treat depression for more than 50 years. However, significant symptom improvement requires > or =2-4 weeks of treatment and a first course of therapy provides symptom relief to...
Resume Plusieurs etudes ont montre l’efficacite de l’utilisation de la mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) dans la prevention des rechutes depressives chez le patient non bipolaire (Segal et al. [2001]), puis d’autres travaux ont explore les effets de cette approche sur les ruminations du sujet depressif (Teasdale [2000] ; Watkins, Teasdale, 2001). Cette etude pilote est la premiere qui...
Brain StimulationOctober 2009Giacomo Koch, Francesco Mori, Claudia Codecà et al.
In animal models, the cannabinoid system has been convincingly implicated in the regulation of long-lasting synaptic plasticity. Both long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD) phenomena can be induced in the human motor cortex by transcranial magnetic theta burst stimulation (TBS). Here, we explored the potential involvement of the cannabinoid system in TBS-induced synaptic plasticity...
Bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder are common, chronic, and recurrent mood disorders that affect the lives of millions of individuals worldwide. Growing evidence suggests that glutamatergic system dysfunction is directly involved in mood disorders. This article describes the role of the "tripartite glutamatergic synapse," comprising presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons and glial...
Mindfulness meditation is increasingly being used as a way of managing pain, reducing stress and anxiety and, in the form of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), as a way of reducing the risk of recurrence in depression (NICE, 2004). This article considers its potential for parents preparing for childbirth focusing on three areas: managing pain during pregnancy and labour; reducing risk...
Background: Psychological distress contributes to the development of hypertension in young adults. This trial assessed the effects of a mind-body intervention on blood pressure (BP), psychological distress, and coping in college students. Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 298 university students randomly allocated to either the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program or...