Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: Impact of Teaching "Meditation Techniques" on the Mental Health and Quality of Life of Medical Students
Brief Summary: Studies show a high number of medical students suffering from mental health problems. Although there are several studies investigating how these problems could impact students' life and performance, few studies have investigated interventions to minimize this distress. One of these interventions is the mindfulness meditation, that has already been extensively studied in the scientific literature showing promising results. Nevertheless, there are very few studies which investigated how mindfulness could be implemented as a mandatory course. The present study aims to investigate (1) how students exposed to mindfulness differ from students not exposed to this technique concerning their mental health and quality of life in a short and long term period. This is an intervention protocol using a randomized controlled clinical trial with cross-over, in order to compare if the implementation of mindfulness for first year medical students will improve their mental health and quality of life in the short term (3 months). The intervention group (group 1) will be exposed to mindfulness in the beginning of the medical course and will be compared to a control group (group 2), not exposed to mindfulness (exposed to theoretical classes) for 3 months. After that, the intervention group (group 1) will receive theoretical classes and the control group (group 2) will be exposed to the mindfulness techniques for 3 months (cross-over). Therefore, both groups will be exposed to mindfulness in the first year of undergraduation, however in different moments of the course. Then, these first year medical students (groups 1 and 2) will be compared to another class (group 3), which didn't have this mindfulness mandatory course in their formation. They will be compared after 6 months, 12 and 24 months of intervention (long-term effect).


Options:
A: Inclusion criteria:

* Women who smoked at least 1 cigarette a day by the time of the study starts
* Aged 18 or above
* Able to communicate in Cantonese or Mandarin, and read and write Chinese

Exclusion criteria:

* Women smokers with unstable physical or psychological conditions as advised by a doctor
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* Full-time first-year student at Carnegie Mellon University.
* Adult (age 18+)
* Must own a data-enabled smartphone
* Scores indicating moderate to high levels of depressive symptomatology (composite score \> or equal to 2 on the short-form (6-item) Beck Depression Inventory).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Potential participants who score a 0 or a 1 on the 6-item BDI section will not be eligible.
C: Inclusion Criteria:

* Males and females who have given written informed consent
* 18 years of age or older
* Smoke an average of a minimum of five cigarettes per day
* Literate in English and able to read, understand, and complete the rating scales and questionnaires accurately, follow instructions, and make use of mindfulness techniques
* Express a wish to quit smoking
* A score at least in the "contemplation" range, as assessed via the Readiness to Change questionnaire (Heather \& McCambridge, 2013)
* Willingness to participate in mindfulness techniques
* Able to attend all clinic visits without interruption

Exclusion Criteria:

* Any current Axis I DSM-IV-TR psychiatric disorder other than alcohol abuse, marijuana abuse, or nicotine dependence that, in the clinician's opinion, warrants treatment or would preclude safe participation in the protocol, including, but not limited to: psychosis, schizophrenia, dementia, schizotypal personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, primary diagnosis of eating disorder, or chronic suicidality or homicidality
* Serious medical comorbidity requiring medical intervention or close supervision, including seizures, pacemakers, heart transplant, severe arrhythmias, or active atrial fibrillation
* Suicide attempt in the last thirty days
* Gross neurological disease
* Mental retardation, which will be assessed by the PI, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral students in clinical psychology
* Minors below the legal smoking age
D: Inclusion Criteria:

* First year medical students who agree to participate in the study and are officially registered in the mindfulness course at the school of medicine - Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Exclusion criteria:

* Students who refused to participate

Answer: D