The Impact of Mindfulness Meditation in Veterans With Epilepsy

NCT ID: NCT03589755

Last Updated: 2020-09-03

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

WITHDRAWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-02-08

Study Completion Date

2020-09-30

Brief Summary

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Epilepsy is one of the fourth most common neurological disorder and affects people of all ages and about 25 % of those patients have medically intractable epilepsy. Since the traditional pharmaceutical and surgical approach is not always effective, this study intends to investigate a novel approach using mindfulness as adjunctive tool of treatment for veterans with epilepsy.

This study proposes a randomized, single-blinded pilot investigative trial to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation. The measures outcomes include seizure frequency, number of ER visits, quality of life, depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep quality and alcohol use in patients with Epilepsy. The cohort group will be randomized in two groups, one is the group of patients getting mindful meditation weekly during 8 weeks compared to patients in the waiting list who have the desire to participate.

Detailed Description

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This is a randomized control trial of the impact of mindfulness meditation in patients with known diagnosis of epilepsy over the course of 2 years.

Participating physicians will recruit patients meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria who have been diagnosed and treated in the epilepsy clinic at the Miami Veteran hospital. Upon completion of screening and enrolment procedures study participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups using a randomized call-in system: Treatment with weekly sessions of mindfulness meditation for 8 weeks or placement in the waiting list.

Demographics will be obtained for both groups during the initial clinic visit. The epilepsy variable questionnaire will also be completed during the initial appointment in the epilepsy clinic (this will assess seizure frequency, number of ER visits 3 months prior, adherence to antiepileptic medications reviewing the electronic pharmacy log with dates of medication being dispensed at the Veteran Medical Center.

All patients will be scheduled to have an initial appointment with the clinical psychologist to fill out the complete a battery of questionnaires including: Quality of life inventory in epilepsy (QOLIE-31), alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT), Beck depression inventory (BDI-II), Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), drug abuse screening test (dast-10), Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Insomnia severity, patient health questionnaires (PHQ), Post traumatic

The patients who do not initially receive mindfulness meditation will continue to receive standard of care and will be placed in a second phase of randomization where they will have a chance to once again be randomized to one of the groups.

This process will continue until a total of at least 40 patients has been recruited. After the recruitment has been completed, the remainder of the patients will be given the opportunity to participate in mindfulness medication if they so desire.

The hypothesis is that mindfulness meditation group will have more favorable outcomes than patients in the waitlist group in terms of the primary outcome of reduction in seizure frequency and secondary outcomes including number of ER visits, improvement in quality of life, decreasing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or PTSD, improvement in sleep quality, and decreased alcohol use.

Physicians will be blinded to which group patients are assigned during data collection. All of the participants will have a weekly clinic note titled Psychology Note in the clinic MIA MH PSYCHOL MINDFUL GRP. The notes will document the session if patient is in the mindfulness meditation group or will document that the patient remains on the waiting list. The physicians will not access these notes and will remain blinded to the patient assignment and upon completion of the study the data will be de-identified and analyzed by the statistician.

Conditions

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Epilepsy

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Investigators
Clinical providers in the epilepsy clinic are blinded

Study Groups

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mindful meditation

Behavioral intervention, providing meditation

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Mindfulness meditation

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The intervention consist of a weekly session of mindfulness meditation provided by a clinical psychologist trained in this area. She will provide weekly session to a group of 10 patients at a time for a total of 8 weeks. Upon completing the course, the other 10 people will start

Waiting list

Patient on a waiting list

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Mindfulness meditation

The intervention consist of a weekly session of mindfulness meditation provided by a clinical psychologist trained in this area. She will provide weekly session to a group of 10 patients at a time for a total of 8 weeks. Upon completing the course, the other 10 people will start

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. Diagnosis of epilepsy, according to the using the 2014 International League Against Epilepsy criteria
2. Adults over the age of 18
3. Willingness to participate in mindfulness meditation sessions weekly for 8 weeks
4. Being able to read at a 6th grade level.
5. Being able to understand the study, consent form, and guided instructions during mindfulness meditation.

Exclusion Criteria

1. Having an isolated diagnosis of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.
2. Having a diagnosis of major neurocognitive disorder previously known as dementia which would make the patient unable to follow guided instructions during mindfulness meditation.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

90 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Miami VA Healthcare System

FED

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Maria Raquel Lopez

Primary Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Maria R Lopez, M.D

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Miami Veteran Affairs hospital

Locations

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miami VAMC

Miami, Florida, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Hauser WA, Annegers JF, Rocca WA. Descriptive epidemiology of epilepsy: contributions of population-based studies from Rochester, Minnesota. Mayo Clin Proc. 1996 Jun;71(6):576-86. doi: 10.4065/71.6.576.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 8642887 (View on PubMed)

Arias AJ, Steinberg K, Banga A, Trestman RL. Systematic review of the efficacy of meditation techniques as treatments for medical illness. J Altern Complement Med. 2006 Oct;12(8):817-32. doi: 10.1089/acm.2006.12.817.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 17034289 (View on PubMed)

Vezzani A, Lang B, Aronica E. Immunity and Inflammation in Epilepsy. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2015 Dec 18;6(2):a022699. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a022699.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 26684336 (View on PubMed)

Pascoe MC, Thompson DR, Jenkins ZM, Ski CF. Mindfulness mediates the physiological markers of stress: Systematic review and meta-analysis. J Psychiatr Res. 2017 Dec;95:156-178. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.08.004. Epub 2017 Aug 23.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 28863392 (View on PubMed)

Walker ER, Obolensky N, Dini S, Thompson NJ. Formative and process evaluations of a cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness intervention for people with epilepsy and depression. Epilepsy Behav. 2010 Nov;19(3):239-46. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2010.07.032. Epub 2010 Sep 15.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 20833592 (View on PubMed)

Acevedo BP, Pospos S, Lavretsky H. The Neural Mechanisms of Meditative Practices: Novel Approaches for Healthy Aging. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2016;3(4):328-339. doi: 10.1007/s40473-016-0098-x. Epub 2016 Oct 18.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 27909646 (View on PubMed)

Moyer CA, Donnelly MP, Anderson JC, Valek KC, Huckaby SJ, Wiederholt DA, Doty RL, Rehlinger AS, Rice BL. Frontal electroencephalographic asymmetry associated with positive emotion is produced by very brief meditation training. Psychol Sci. 2011 Oct;22(10):1277-9. doi: 10.1177/0956797611418985. Epub 2011 Sep 15. No abstract available.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 21921291 (View on PubMed)

Tang YY, Lu Q, Feng H, Tang R, Posner MI. Short-term meditation increases blood flow in anterior cingulate cortex and insula. Front Psychol. 2015 Feb 26;6:212. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00212. eCollection 2015.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 25767459 (View on PubMed)

Guidelines for epidemiologic studies on epilepsy. Commission on Epidemiology and Prognosis, International League Against Epilepsy. Epilepsia. 1993 Jul-Aug;34(4):592-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1528-1157.1993.tb00433.x. No abstract available.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 8330566 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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1158499-1

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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