Clinical trial NCT04749264: The Influence of Mindfulness Meditation Retreat on Attention to Internal Experience
Official title: The Influence of Mindfulness Meditation Retreat on Attention to Internal Experience
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Attention Impaired
Cognitive Change
Mental Health Issue
Keywords: Internal attention
Interoceptive attention
Meditation
Mindfulness
Mindfulness Retreat
Lead sponsor: University of Haifa
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-02-11
Enrollment: 142
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Adults from the general population and the local community of meditation practitioners.

Brief summary: Although attention is thought to have a definitive functional role in mindfulness meditation training and its salutary mechanisms of action, extant empirical evidence is mixed and limited. In the proposed study, we propose to test whether 6 to 7-days mindfulness meditation retreats (N=90), relative to a wait-list control condition (N=45), will impact internal attentional processes or attention to internal experience (e.g., thoughts and bodily sensations); and whether these internal attentional change processes predict salutary outcomes of mindfulness meditation retreats. Participants will complete tasks designed to measure attention to internal experience before and then immediately following the retreat, as well as self-report measures of salutary outcomes before and 2-weeks post-retreat. Matched controls will complete the tasks at parallel time-points in the lab.

Detailed description: Broadly, the investigators first aim is to assess whether mindfulness meditation retreat will yield significant improvement at post-relative to pre-retreat, compared to matched control, in each of these internal attentional processes: (i) enhanced ability to disengage from negative self-referential thoughts; (ii) reduced selection bias to negative self-referential thoughts; (iii) enhanced interoceptive attention and sensibility to a broader range of locations, intensities and hedonic tones of bodily sensations in response to negative and neutral self-referential thoughts; as well as (iv) enhanced mindful awareness during mindfulness meditation as expressed in the objects and temporal dynamics of mindful awareness. Second, the investigators will assess whether each of the aforementioned internal attentional change processes from pre- to post-retreat, will predict change from pre- to 2-weeks post-retreat in mindful awareness in daily living, mindfulness-related processes (e.g., decentering), and mental health. Third, investigators will assess whether previous meditation experience moderates these effects.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Retreat Group: Adults who register to participate in a 6 to 7-days mindfulness meditation retreats.
* Control Group: Adults participants will be recruited from social media and local community of meditation practitioners, and will be matched to the retreat group by gender, age and level of experience in meditation.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Younger than 18 years-old and older than 65-years.
* Have first language other than Hebrew.
* Self-report lack of fluency in speaking or understanding Hebrew-language.
* Not having access to a computer and headphones with a microphone (for completing behavioral tasks).
* Participation in a retreat 1 month before the first primary outcomes assessment or during the weeks between the second primary outcomes assessment and the 2-weeks follow-up.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Simulated Thought Paradigm - Digit Categorization Task
timeFrame: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention
measure: Change in Simulated Thought Paradigm - Dichotic 1-Back Task
timeFrame: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention
measure: Change in Simulated Thought Paradigm - Body Map Task
timeFrame: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention
measure: Change in Mindful Awareness Task
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 0-2 days post-intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Well-Being Index (WHO-5)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Mind Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Rumination Response Scale (RRS) - Brooding subscale
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in The Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Sussex-Oxford Compassion for the Self Scale (SOCS-S)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Metacognitive Processes of Decentering Scale - Trait (MPod-t)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in The 7-Item Nonattachment Scale (NAS-7)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in The 16 item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in Trait International - Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Short Form (I-PANAS-SF)
timeFrame: pre-intervention, 2-weeks post-intervention
measure: Change in State Mindfulness Scale (SMS)
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Change in Toronto Mindfulness Scale - Curiosity subscale (TMS-C)
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Change in Metacognitive Processes of Decentering Scale - State (MPod-s)
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Change in State International - Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Short Form (State I-PANAS-SF)
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Change in Experience Sampling of Mindful Awareness During Meditation
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Change in Experience Sampling of Attitudinal Qualities of Mindfulness During Meditation
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Change in Experience Sampling of Phenomenological States During Meditation
timeFrame: immediately after MAT administration pre-intervention, immediately after MAT administration post-intervention
measure: Peak Meditative Experience Scale (PMES)
timeFrame: 0-2 days post-intervention
measure: Impact of Peak Meditative Experience Scale (I-PMES)
timeFrame: 2-weeks post-intervention
Other outcomes:
measure: Previous Meditation Experience Interview
timeFrame: pre-intervention
Locations:
city: Afula
country: Israel
facility: Amutat Tovana
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Haifa
name: Amit Bernstein, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: