NCT04747730

Fostering Inmates' Well-being and Mental Health

Fostering Inmates' Well-being and Mental Health Through Transcendental Meditation: a Prison Pilot

• Status: Terminated
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 44 (actual)
• Sponsor: Queen Mary University of London · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The objective of the project was to provide an assessment of the impact of Transcendental Meditation on prison inmates' well-being. To achieve this goal the investigators conducted a before-and-after study in Her Majesty's Prison Warren Hill (HMP) (England). Meditation is correlated with better self-regulation and is innovative because it fosters generalisable psychological processes that support cognitive, emotional and behavioural regulation, with self-regulation being an important factor behind a variety of outcomes. Unfortunately, the trial couldn't be completed as the investigators didn't manage to recruit a sufficient number of participants.

Detailed description

The meditation intervention consists of teaching four one-hour lessons of the Transcendental meditation technique developed and offered by the David Lynch Foundation. The technique involves the use of a sound (mantra) to effortlessly allow the mind to settle down to a state of inner calm. Meditation enables those who have learned it and regularly practice it to be more self-aware and respond in a calmer and more considered manner to whatever happens in their present experience.

Conditions

• Well-being

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Transcendental Meditation training	The programme targets inmates in HMP Warren Hill who are eligible to learn the meditation technique, who are staying in prison for at least six months since the beginning of the programme and who provide the signed informed consent. The sample of eligible inmates is approximately 190 inmates out of 250 currently in the prison. Inmates will be contacted by the research team in prison during introductory sessions of the research intervention.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-08-01
• Primary completion: 2019-12-15
• Completion: 2019-12-15
• First posted: 2021-02-10
• Last updated: 2022-01-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom