The effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Relaxation Training on Neural Correlates of Attention in Adults aged 18 to 35 with Anxiety

niversity of Tasmania0 sites50 target enrollmentSeptember 27, 2021

Overview

No summary available.

Registry

who.int

Start Date

September 27, 2021

End Date

TBD

Last Updated

2 years ago

Study Type

Interventional

Sex

All

Sponsor

niversity of Tasmania

•Participants will be screened for inclusion/exclusion using an online screening questionnaire. Females and males aged 18\-35 years with high (\>10\) generalised anxiety symptoms over the past two weeks (GAD\-7; Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, \& Lowe, 2006\) will be included. Participants with low meditation and relaxation experience (no more than 15 minutes during an average week over the past year, and less than 20 hours in total over their lifetime), with the exception of movement\-based practices (e.g., Tai Chi, yoga for exercise), will be selected based on their responses to a customised meditation / relaxation experience questionnaire. Participants will have normal or corrected\-to\-normal vision and hearing, so they are able to see the stimuli and hear instructions clearly. In addition, all participants will need to speak English as a first language and be able to read English fluently so that they can accurately read words in the Stroop task.

•Standard exclusion criteria for EEG/ERP research will also apply, so that any differences in brain activity are not attributable to other factors. These exclusion criteria include: any history of psychiatric (other than depressive or anxiety disorder) or neurological disorders (including epilepsy), severe head injury, seizure, giddiness or loss of consciousness (\>2 mins), a heart condition or any other serious physical condition, current daily tobacco use, recent history of illicit drug use (no more than six occasions in the last six months), current use of prescription medications (excluding the contraceptive pill or antidepressant medication), current sleep disorders, and pregnancy/breast feeding or a high likelihood of pregnancy. Those who report colour blindness will also be excluded as participants will need to be able to distinguish colours to complete the Stroop task. Those with risk of alcohol dependence (scores greater than 16 on the Alcohol Use and Disorders Identification Test; AUDIT; Babor, Higgins\-Biddle, Saunders, \& Monteiro, 2001\) will also be excluded. As the relaxation condition involves deep breathing exercises which can lead to light headedness if not done properly, participants who indicate they have low blood pressure, giddiness or asthma, will need to indicate that this is currently managed in order to participate.