Psychological and Neurobiological Impact of a Retreat Based on Mindfulness and Compassion for Stress Reduction.
Condition: Mindfulness; Compassion; Psychophysiologic Reaction; Psychological Distress; Emotion Regulation; Stress
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The study is aimed at comparing the differential effects of two widely used standardized
      meditation programs: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Compassion Cultivation
      Training (CCT) delivered in a retreat format with a cross-over design in a general population
      sample of healthy adults.
    

Detailed description: 
      The main objective of the study is to evaluate the effects of two mindfulness-based intensive
      interventions: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training or Compassion Cultivation
      Training (CCT), on psychological, physiological and epigenetic changes in a population of
      health volunteer adults. During a 7-day retreat participants will be randomised to two study
      arms: group 1 and 2, beginning either with a 3-day MBSR training or a 3-day CCT training. On
      the 4th day they will cross-over to the opposite intervention.

      To address this goal, the effects will be measured by self-report questionnaires belonging to
      different domains (mindfulness, compassion, well-being, psychological distress, and
      psychological functioning), psychophysiological measures (EEG resting state, Diurnal cortisol
      slope, EKG and respiration patterns), epigenetic changes (DNA methylation biomarkers) and an
      objective stress task (Arithmetic Stress Test). Psychobiological outcome measures will be
      collected from both groups on day 1 (pre-intervention), on day 4 (post intervention and
      before beginning of the second intervention). The third assessment will be conducted on day 7
      for both groups (post-second intervention). A 6-month follow-up assessment will be carried in
      both groups only for psychological questionnaires.

      Data analysis will include change scores in psychological outcome measures as well as DNA
      methylation (by EPIC arrays) and gene expression (RNA-seq) measures.
    

Intervention name(s): Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction; Compassion Cultivation Training
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The MBSR is an 8-week standardized program (Kabat-Zinn,1990).
During the retreat, participants will receive intensive training during 3 days (from 4:00pm to 9pm the first day and from 7 am to 10 pm including breaks, the second and third days), including focused attention on the breath, open monitoring of awareness in body-scanning, prosocial meditation (i.e. loving kindness and compassion) and gentle yoga. Training is delivered by certified instructors by the University of Massachusetts Centre for Mindfulness (https://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/).; The CCT is an 8-week standardized program (Jinpa, 2010; Jazaieri et al. 2013, 2014) consisting of daily formal and informal practices.
Training will be conducted during 3 days of the retreat (same schedule as the MBSR training). The CCT consists of six sequential steps: 1) Settling the mind and learn how to focus it; 2) Loving kindness and compassion for a loved one practice; 3) Loving kindness and compassion for oneself practice; 4) compassion toward others, embracing shared common humanity and developing appreciation of others; 5) compassion toward others including all beings; and 6) active compassion practices (Tonglen) which involve explicit evocation of the altruistic wish to do something about others' suffering. CCT program is delivered by certified instructors by the University of Stanford Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (http://ccare.stanford.edu/).
Other intervention name(s): MBSR; CCT
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Crossover Assignment
Masking: Triple (Participant, Care Provider, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: MBSR; CCT; Mindfulness; Compassion; Epigenetics; Stress