NCT05137769

Women's Responses to a Mindfulness-Based Body Scan: A Pilot Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 60 (actual)
• Sponsor: Vanderbilt University · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

PTSD develops after trauma and is marked by intrusive memories, avoidance of reminders, negative changes in mood and cognitive processes, and dysregulated physical and emotional stress reactivity. PTSD disparately affects twice as many women as men (8.0% vs. 4.1%), and finding effective treatments for these women is critical to reduce poor health outcomes associated with PTSD. Mind-body therapies (MBT), using the mind in combination with the body to facilitate healing hold promise to enhance PTSD treatment by improving stress regulation. While MBT reduce PTSD symptoms long-term, women with PTSD may initially experience distress, leading to treatment avoidance. This pilot study will explore women's initial responses to MBT, the prevalence of adverse responses, and which women are at risk for adverse responses in a sample of participants with a history of trauma and varying levels of PTSD symptoms. Study participants will attend one virtual study visit via one-on-one videoconference with the PI, where they will complete self-report measures of stress and affect before and after one session of a MBT exercise. A subset of the sample will complete a semi-structured individual videoconference interview with the PI within two weeks following completion of the MBT exercise and quantitative measures.

Detailed description

The proposed single-group study will use a pre-post design to assess participants' responses to one exposure to a mindfulness-based body scan in a sample of women with a history of trauma and varying levels of PTSD symptoms. Quantitative measures will assess self-reported state positive affect, negative affect, and anxiety before and after the body scan, and psychosocial characteristics expected to influence responses. Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a subsample of women to learn about their subjective experiences related to the body scan.

Conditions

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Trauma, Psychological

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Body Scan	The body scan is a core element of mindfulness-based stress reduction. Participants will listen to a 20-minute audio guide instructing them to focus on sensations in the body, place attention on one area of the body at a time, and progressively move attention throughout areas of the body.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-04-15
• Primary completion: 2023-02-01
• Completion: 2023-02-01
• First posted: 2021-11-30
• Last updated: 2023-02-03

Locations

4 sites across 1 country: United States