Efficacy of Spanish or English Language Versions of Mindfulness Meditation on Depression (REMAPS)

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Health Education - Spanish; Behavioral: Mindful Awareness Practices- English; Behavioral: Mindful Awareness Practices- Spanish; Behavioral: Health Education - English

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03545074

REMAPS

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study explores the differential efficacy of Spanish or English versions of a mindfulness intervention on Depression levels, using a pre test post test design and an active control condition (health education).

Full description

This study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with an experimental condition (MAPs Mindfulness intervention) and an active control group (Health Education), using a pretest and immediate posttest research design. Both conditions are comprised of a 6-week group intervention, which will be administered at the UCLA Westwood Medical Campus. The sample (N=80) will be drawn from a population of adults (18-65 years old), residing within a 10mile radius of the UCLA Westwood Medical Campus. To determine initial eligibility, potential participants will self-select based on perceived high levels of stress. Participants will respond self-report questionnaires to assess for psychological symptoms and will be drawn blood samples (180ml total) to assess levels of pro inflammatory cytokines before and after the interventions. Participants will attend a total of 8 visits.

Enrollment: 76 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• In order to determine eligibility, interested participants will be phone screened. To qualify for the study, participants have to be fluent in either Spanish or English, validated by self-report at phone screening. Additionally, during the phone screening participants had to complete a 4-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen & Williamson, 1988) and score above the 50th percentile (a score of 9 or higher) in order to be eligible

Exclusion criteria

• People not meeting any of the above criteria.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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76 participants in 4 patient groups

Mindfulness Spanish

Experimental group

Description:

The MAPs program was developed at UCLA (Winston \& Smalley, 2010 and Lopez-Maya, 2016) and provides experiential training in mindfulness-based practices, including mindfulness meditation. UCLA-certified instructors delivered the interventions. Active program components include sitting and walking meditations, body scan and loving-kindness meditation. Participants were provided with audio CDs or digital downloads to complete their daily meditation assignments. Sessions were held once per week for 2 hours per session over a period of six consecutive weeks. Home practice assignments consist of daily mindfulness exercises starting with 5 minutes daily, progressing to 20 minutes daily by the end of the program.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mindful Awareness Practices- Spanish

Mindfulness English

Experimental group

Description:

The MAPs program was developed at UCLA (Winston \& Smalley, 2010) and provides experiential training in mindfulness-based practices, including mindfulness meditation. UCLA-certified instructors delivered the interventions. Active program components include sitting and walking meditations, body scan and loving-kindness meditation. Participants were provided with audio CDs or digital downloads to complete their daily meditation assignments. Sessions were held once per week for 2 hours per session over a period of six consecutive weeks. Home practice assignments consist of daily mindfulness exercises starting with 5 minutes daily, progressing to 20 minutes daily by the end of the program.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mindful Awareness Practices- English

Health Education Spanish

Active Comparator group

Description:

The health education condition is a weekly 2-hour, 6 session course aimed at knowledge acquisition in subjects related to health care in general. Similar interventions have been described elsewhere (Black, et al., 2014; Irwin, et al., 2014). A trained health educator provided videos and didactic presentations on topics such as: stress, sleep hygiene, diet \& nutrition, sexuality, mental health and substance abuse. The health education condition resembled the MAPs intervention in terms of duration, group format and support, attention and participant expectancy regarding health benefits.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Health Education - Spanish

Health Education English

Active Comparator group

Description:

The health education condition is a weekly 2-hour, 6 session course aimed at knowledge acquisition in subjects related to health care in general. Similar interventions have been described elsewhere (Black, et al., 2014; Irwin, et al., 2014). A trained health educator provided videos and didactic presentations on topics such as: stress, sleep hygiene, diet \& nutrition, sexuality, mental health and substance abuse. The health education condition resembled the MAPs intervention in terms of duration, group format and support, attention and participant expectancy regarding health benefits.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Health Education - English