Yoga, Mindfulness and Cognitive Psychotherapy as Treatment for Stress and Burnout

Karolinska Institute

Status: Completed

Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Depression; Anxiety; Stress, Psychological

Treatments: Behavioral: Yoga; Behavioral: Mindfulness based cog psychotherapy; Behavioral: Cognitive psychotherapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01168661

Pickup 2003

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to investigate if treatment with yoga or mindfulness has a more profound and longstanding effect on stress and burnout than treatment with cognitive psychotherapy alone.

Enrollment: 90 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 16 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• On sick leave at least 50% at the beginning of the study.
• Sick leave for a maximum of 1 year if on full-time sick leave at the beginning of the study or for a maximum of 3 years if on part-time sick leave at the beginning of the study.
• Speak Swedish well enough to participate in the study interventions.
• Body mass index (BMI) of between 18 and 30.
• Meet the diagnostic criteria for burnout syndrome from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare.

Exclusion criteria

• Medication, including all medication or topical skin preparations with cortisone in any form. Exceptions: Antidepressants, contraceptives, hormone replacement therapy for hypothyroidism if hormone levels were within the normal range, and hormone replacement therapy to treat menopausal symptoms. To receive an exception for medication, a participant had to take the same medication at the same dose at both blood tests.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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90 participants in 4 patient groups

Control arm

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this arm will be recruited from the group who applied to participate in the study and fulfilled the inclusion criteria but for various reasons (such as time constraints) could not participate.

Cognitive psychotherapy arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

In this arm, participants will attend a group meeting to practice cognitive psychotherapy once a week. They will also practice on their own \>= 4 times a week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive psychotherapy

Mindfulness based cog psychotherapy arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

In this arm, participants will attend a group meeting to practice mindfulness based cognitive psychotherapy once a week. They will also practice on their own \>= 4 times a week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mindfulness based cog psychotherapy

Yoga treatment group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Persons in this arm will practice yoga \>= 5 time each week (2 times in a supervised group and the other times on their own).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Yoga