Meditation Intervention for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Patients Undergoing Dialysis: A Randomized Control Trial

Roughly 50% of people who undergo dialysis experience stress, anxiety or depression, but often these conditions go undetected and untreated. It is known that meditation is helpful for anxiety and depression, especially in people who have chronic health conditions. This study will look specifically at meditation interventions tailored to the dialysis setting. Patients on maintenance hemodialysis with anxiety and depression will be recruited from hemodialysis units. Recruitment will start at the Jewish General Hospital in March 2016. Recruitment may later expand to University Health Network (Toronto), and/or other sites affiliated with McGill University or University of Toronto.

Participants will then be randomly assigned to receive meditation or continue with their usual treatment. The participants assigned to the meditation group will practice several meditation techniques with a trained interventionist 3 times a week, during their dialysis sessions.

At the end of the 8 weeks, the investigators will assess whether the meditation intervention was feasible (i.e. whether recruitment goals were met and drop out rates were as expected). Participants in the meditation group will be asked to rate whether they enjoyed the meditation on a scale. Both the participants assigned to the meditation group and to the usual treatment group will be asked to rate their depression and anxiety symptoms on the PHQ-9 and the GAD-7 scales to evaluate whether there was any change.