Mindful Prevention of Psychopathology in Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Crisis (COVID-19 MindPreP)

NCT ID: NCT04720404

Last Updated: 2022-07-12

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

201 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2020-06-23

Study Completion Date

2022-06-09

Brief Summary

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The current study will be a randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigating an adapted online Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program versus daily online self-help mindfulness exercises, in preventing incident/prevalent psychopathology in healthcare workers allocated to work with COVID-19 patients. Outcome measures include depression, anxiety, somatoform symptoms, post-traumatic stress, insomnia, substance abuse, post-traumatic growth and positive mental health. The study also aims to explore possible working mechanisms such as perseverative thinking, mindfulness skills and self-compassion.

The study will have a follow-up duration of 7 months from baseline.

Detailed Description

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Introduction With the rapid developments to anticipate and manage the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare personnel is quickly reallocated to COVID-19 units. These people will experience substantial amounts of stress which has been shown to result in the development or increase of stress related disorders like psychological distress and psychopathology in 50-70%. Adaptive reconsolidation of stressful events is required for resilience against prolonged stress and prevent development and/or recurrence of psychopathology.

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are potent interventions with profitable results in many people with and without stress-related disorders. These interventions invite people to allow bodily sensations, thoughts and feelings in reaction to and in the aftermath of stressors and pay attention to them in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and without judgment. The effectiveness of these interventions on stress reduction is now founded on a strong meta-analytical evidence base in symptom and stress-reduction in diverse clinical and non-clinical populations.

Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a specific stress-focused MBI. In healthcare professionals, MBSR training increased well-being, mindfulness skills, empathy and emotional stability and decreased burnout, anxiety, and depression. A randomized clinical trial showed that specifically residents with high baseline levels of emotional exhaustion benefitted from MBSR. Moreover, MBSR can be delivered effectively via interactive video-conferencing, which makes it suited to quickly support relatively large groups of healthcare workers.

Taken together that MBSR has beneficial effects in healthcare workers and is aimed at dealing with stress, this makes it a potentially useful intervention to prevent psychopathological sequela of the high-stress situations for healthcare workers inherent to the current COVID-19 outbreak. However, the effectiveness of an additional MBSR intervention in a severe crisis situation like the COVID-19 outbreak needs to be empirically investigated in a prospective study, before large scale implementation is advocated.

Aims The aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of an adapted online MBSR added to Support As Usual (SAU) versus daily self-help mindfulness exercises via a YouTube-channel (DMYT) + SAU on the incidence and prevalence of psychological distress and psychopathology (anxiety, depression, somatoform symptoms). In addition, we aim to decrease post-traumatic stress symptoms, insomnia, substance abuse and health-related costs more in the MBSR + SAU group. We also aim to improve the post-traumatic growth, positive mental health and health-related quality of life. Furthermore, we will investigate whether improving mindfulness skills and self-compassion and decreasing repetitive negative thinking may help reduce psychological distress (working mechanism).

Method A two-armed randomized, controlled superiority trial comparing an adapted MBSR + SAU versus DMYT + SAU for reducing psychological distress and psychopathology in healthcare workers working with COVID-19 patients. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, post intervention (1 month) and follow-up at 4 and 7 months.

The intervention is an interactive adapted online MBSR program. The training consists of eight 1.5 hour group sessions twice per week during 4 weeks and daily home practice assignments guided by audio files. The sessions will be held via interactive video-streaming. MBSR courses will be taught by qualified mindfulness teachers. Participants in the control condition will have the possibility to use a self-help daily mindfulness exercise of 30 minutes on a YouTube channel (DMYT) for 4 weeks. Both will be offered on top of the other interventions (SAU) already available in the hospital or organization (e.g. buddy-, team- and peer support system, shopping/dinner service, etc.).

Conditions

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Mindfulness Randomized Controlled Trial Psychopathology Health Personnel

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Randomized, controlled clinical trial of interactive MBSR program added to support as usual (MBSR + SAU) versus support as usual with daily self-help mindfulness exercises via a YouTube-channel (SAU + DMYT)
Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors
Outcomes on psychiatric interview will be assessed by independent research assistants blind to condition. Participants will be instructed to avoid unblinding as much as possible.

Study Groups

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Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program

Healthcare workers in the MBSR arm will be invited to participate in an adapted online MBSR program added to support as usual

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants in the intervention group will follow a 4-week adapted MBSR training. The training consists of biweekly sessions of 1,5 hours. The training is structured based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training as originally designed by John Kabat Zinn. The program includes both formal and informal meditation exercises.

Support as usual

Intervention Type OTHER

Support as usual (SAU) consists of facilities or interventions already available healthcare organisations provided to their healthcare workers (e.g. buddy-, team- and peer support system, shopping/dinner service etc.).

Daily self-help mindfulness exercises via YouTube-channel

Healthcare workers in the self-help arm will be invited to follow a self-help program with mindfulness/compassion exercises of 30 minutes per day via YouTube channel

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Self-help mindfulness/compassion exercises

Intervention Type OTHER

Participants in the self-help group will receive a 4-week program with daily suggestions for mindfulness/compassion exercises of 30 minutes on a YouTube-channel. Participants can schedule the exercises themselves.

Support as usual

Intervention Type OTHER

Support as usual (SAU) consists of facilities or interventions already available healthcare organisations provided to their healthcare workers (e.g. buddy-, team- and peer support system, shopping/dinner service etc.).

Interventions

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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Participants in the intervention group will follow a 4-week adapted MBSR training. The training consists of biweekly sessions of 1,5 hours. The training is structured based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training as originally designed by John Kabat Zinn. The program includes both formal and informal meditation exercises.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Self-help mindfulness/compassion exercises

Participants in the self-help group will receive a 4-week program with daily suggestions for mindfulness/compassion exercises of 30 minutes on a YouTube-channel. Participants can schedule the exercises themselves.

Intervention Type OTHER

Support as usual

Support as usual (SAU) consists of facilities or interventions already available healthcare organisations provided to their healthcare workers (e.g. buddy-, team- and peer support system, shopping/dinner service etc.).

Intervention Type OTHER

Other Intervention Names

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MBSR Mindfulness-based Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Healthcare workers who are either currently or in past have been working directly with COVID-19 patients, e.g. on COVID-19 ward/intensive care unit.

Exclusion Criteria

* Impossibility to obtain a valid informed consent
* Insufficient comprehension of the Dutch language
* Inability to access the interactive videoconferencing
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Radboud University Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Anne Speckens

Professor Anne Speckens

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Anne Speckens, Prof.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Radboud University Medical Center

Locations

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Radboud university medical center

Nijmegen, , Netherlands

Site Status

Countries

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Netherlands

References

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Provided Documents

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Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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MFN-COVID-19 2020-22

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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