Meditation as Complementary Treatment for Chronic Hypertension in Pregnancy

NCT ID: NCT03873194

Last Updated: 2022-03-24

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

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

47 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-04-15

Study Completion Date

2021-12-30

Brief Summary

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Pregnancy relates to arterial hypertension; it is an aggravating factor for pre-existing chronic arterial hypertension or a trigger for preeclampsia in normotensive women. The gestational hypertensive disease is managed conventionally with the pregnant woman's hospitalization and/or the use of antihypertensive medications. Nevertheless, this treatment may present some risks. The investigators seek to determine whether the intervention compared to the control can reduce the increase in blood pressure that pregnant women in the transition from the 2nd to the 3rd trimester.

Detailed Description

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Primary research question:

Can meditation decrease the mean increase in diastolic blood pressure in pregnant hypertensive women at the transition from the second to the third trimester of gestation?

Secondary research question:

Can meditation decrease the mean increase in systolic blood pressure in pregnant hypertensive women at the transition from the second to the third trimester of gestation?

Does meditation practice increases (or decreases) the likelihood of change in Resilience indicators?

Does meditation practice increase (or decrease) the likelihood of change in anxiety and depression indicators?

Does meditation practice increase (or decrease) the likelihood of change in mindfulness indicators?

Does meditation practice increase (or decrease) the likelihood of change in quality of life indicators?

Conditions

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Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension in Pregnancy Hypertension

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

The objective of this study is assess the effect of meditation as a complementary therapy in hypertensive pregnant women.

The method used will be a randomized, controlled and blinded clinical trial, where meditation is going to be offered between March 2019 and July 2020 at the Obstetrics Clinic of Hospital of Clinics, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo. Patients are going to be randomly assigned to two groups: Group I, patients who are going to practice meditation and Group II, patients that will receive only the usual outpatient care.

The allocation will be performed according to CONSORT criteria and sequential within two classifications of diastolic blood pressure values.

Differences between the means of the variables (blood pressure levels and questionnaires about life quality, anxiety, resilience and mindfulness) will be compared between the groups. Values of p\<0,05 will be considered significant.
Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Investigators Outcome Assessors
Blinding will be used in the following manner: after informed consent, an auxiliary researcher will randomly allocate participants to 2 research groups (Group A or Group B). After this step, the auxiliary researcher will collect data for the study and will refer the patient for the usual treatment or for the usual treatment and also meditation.

The lead researcher will not have access to the data that was collected at the beginning of the study by the auxiliary researcher before the end of the intervention step. He will analyse the results without knowing which patients were in which group (A or B). Only after statistical analysis the groups composition will be revealed.

Study Groups

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Meditation group

Patients who are going to practice meditation and will receive only the usual outpatient care, with the aim of observing reduction of systemic blood pressure in this period.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Meditation

Intervention Type OTHER

Participants will be instructed to find a comfortable position, with a straight back, feeling the general state of their bodies (tensions, pains, heat, cold, etc.), to relax and pay attention to their own breathing, being aware of the air that gets into and out of the lungs. The women will be told that whenever their attention disperses (to another focus such as a thought, a sound, a body sensation, a judgment, etc.) they should go back to the original focus (breathing) with no feeling/judgment about the loss of focus. The practice involves focus and attention exercises and the gradual insertion of other anchors (focus points) as participants improve their skills in this practice.

conventional treatment

Intervention Type OTHER

Early prenatal care, when possible, is recommended as the first measure. Prenatal appointments usually take place fortnightly or weekly for hypertensive pregnant women. Extensive lab testing including specific tests for the first trimester, as well as tests for the diagnosis of superimposed pre-eclampsia and for the evaluation of lesions in target organs.

Drug treatment is only used when non-drug measures against hypertension are inefficient to decrease blood pressure levels and diastolic pressure is 90 mmHg or higher (in the first half of pregnancy) and over 100 mmHg (after 20 weeks).

conventional treatment

Patients that will receive only the usual outpatient care, with the aim of observing the systemic blood pressure in this period.

Group Type OTHER

conventional treatment

Intervention Type OTHER

Early prenatal care, when possible, is recommended as the first measure. Prenatal appointments usually take place fortnightly or weekly for hypertensive pregnant women. Extensive lab testing including specific tests for the first trimester, as well as tests for the diagnosis of superimposed pre-eclampsia and for the evaluation of lesions in target organs.

Drug treatment is only used when non-drug measures against hypertension are inefficient to decrease blood pressure levels and diastolic pressure is 90 mmHg or higher (in the first half of pregnancy) and over 100 mmHg (after 20 weeks).

Interventions

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Meditation

Participants will be instructed to find a comfortable position, with a straight back, feeling the general state of their bodies (tensions, pains, heat, cold, etc.), to relax and pay attention to their own breathing, being aware of the air that gets into and out of the lungs. The women will be told that whenever their attention disperses (to another focus such as a thought, a sound, a body sensation, a judgment, etc.) they should go back to the original focus (breathing) with no feeling/judgment about the loss of focus. The practice involves focus and attention exercises and the gradual insertion of other anchors (focus points) as participants improve their skills in this practice.

Intervention Type OTHER

conventional treatment

Early prenatal care, when possible, is recommended as the first measure. Prenatal appointments usually take place fortnightly or weekly for hypertensive pregnant women. Extensive lab testing including specific tests for the first trimester, as well as tests for the diagnosis of superimposed pre-eclampsia and for the evaluation of lesions in target organs.

Drug treatment is only used when non-drug measures against hypertension are inefficient to decrease blood pressure levels and diastolic pressure is 90 mmHg or higher (in the first half of pregnancy) and over 100 mmHg (after 20 weeks).

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. Pre-existing hypertension.
2. Single pregnancy, with gestational age between 20th and 24th weeks, with uncomplicated systemic arterial hypertension.
3. Prenatal follow-up in a high-risk pregnancy clinic.
4. No personal background of depression or psychiatric disorders.
5. No serious heart disease.
6. No illicit drugs and/or alcohol use.
7. Acceptance of the informed consent.
8. To follow the practice used in the study, the subjects are required to have an available phone in order to download an app which contains an audio guide for this purpose.

Exclusion Criteria

1. Diagnosis of depression and psychiatric disorders during pregnancy.
2. Patients who do not return to follow-up or who want to quit the study.
3. To practice meditation.
Minimum Eligible Age

21 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

50 Years

Eligible Sex

FEMALE

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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University of Sao Paulo General Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Locations

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Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo

São Paulo, , Brazil

Site Status

Countries

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Brazil

References

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Other Identifiers

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93028218.7.0000.0068

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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