Craving and Lifestyle Management Through Mindfulness Study (CALMM)

January 16, 2013 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

Effects of Stress Reduction on Eating, Fat Distribution, and Cell Aging Among Overweight Women

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindful eating program will lead to reductions in abdominal fat and total weight and improve cell aging in overweight and obese women compared to a waitlist control group.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Obesity is the largest growing epidemic, with about 65% of Americans overweight (Flegal, Carroll et al. 2002). Obesity, in particular, abdominal obesity, confers increased risk for a host of diseases, including hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease, resulting in shortened life span (Fontaine, Redden et al. 2003). Psychological stress is widely cited anecdotally as a factor that causes people to engage in overeating, and studies provide strong evidence that stress can promote obesity. Stress induces selective preference of sweet, high-fat food and increases visceral fat depots. The telomere maintenance system (telomerase activity and telomere length)are markers of cellular aging and predict mortality (Cawthon et al, 2003)and have been linked to both psychological stress and components of the metabolic syndrome. The proposed study adapts a program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) that has been shown to be effective in a variety of other stress-related conditions. Fifty overweight, pre-menopausal women at risk for the Metabolic Syndrome will be randomized in a 1:1 distribution to either a 3-month intervention to reduce stress and overeating [Craving and Lifestyle Management with Mindfulness (CALMM)] or wait list control group. The primary outcome measures include amounts of abdominal fat, weight, and telomerase activity. Data from this study are intended to provide pilot data for use in planning a larger randomized, controlled trial that will investigate the effects of the CALMM intervention on the metabolic and psychological processes assessed in this pilot study.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
53

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • San Francisco, California, United States, 94115
        • UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

21 years to 50 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pre-menopausal
  • BMI (25 - 40)
  • Weight < 300 lbs.
  • Negative urine glucose test

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to provide informed consent
  • Age < 21 or menopausal as determined by self-report
  • DSM-IV diagnosis of an eating disorder
  • Any substance abuse, mental health, or medical condition that, in the opinion of investigators, will make it difficult for the potential participant to participate in the intervention
  • Factors that confound relations between stress and eating, including, drug abuse and use of medications containing corticosteroids.
  • Diabetes
  • Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
  • CHD
  • Breastfeeding (due to interference with stress hormone measurement)
  • Non English speaker
  • Pregnant as determined by pregnancy test at screening visit or planning to get pregnant in the next 6 months
  • Previous MBSR training and/or current meditation, yoga, or other mind-body practice
  • Initiation of new class of psychiatric medications in past 2 months.
  • Currently on a weight loss diet

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: CALMM
Participants receiving the 'Craving and Lifestyle Management through Mindfulness' intervention, i.e. program that combines stress reduction with mindful eating practices.
Behavioral: Craving and Lifestyle Management through Mindfulness
A preliminary, novel intervention was developed drawing on components from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT). The intervention program consisted of nine 2.5-hour classes and one 7-hour silent day of guided meditation practice after class 6.
No Intervention: Waitlist Control
Participants were waitlisted for the intervention during the experimental phase.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Abdominal Fat
Time Frame: Change from Baseline in Abdominal Fat (baseline and 4 months)
Whole-body dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans were performed to assess body fat distribution. The DEXA densitometry (GE Healthcare Lunar Prodigy, Madison, Wis, USA) was adjusted to the fan beam mode and EnCore software version 9.15 was used. The primary region of interest was fat tissue from a rectangular region in the abdominal area defined by the upper boundary of the second lumbar vertebra to the lower edge of the fourth lumbar vertebra. The vertical sides were defined as the continuation of the lateral sides of the rib cage.
Change from Baseline in Abdominal Fat (baseline and 4 months)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Weight
Time Frame: Change in Weight (baseline and 4 months)
Change in Weight (baseline and 4 months)
Telomerase Activity
Time Frame: Change from Baseline in Telomerase Activity at 4 months
Cryopreserved peripheral blood nuclear cells (PBMCs) were thawed and live cells counted using a hemocytometer by the Trypan blue exclusion method. For each sample, an extract of 5000 cells per microliter was made and two concentrations, corresponding to 5000 and 10,000 cells, were assayed for each sample to ensure the assay was in the linear range. Telomerase activity was assayed by the Telomerase Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP) using a commercial kit (TRAPeze, Telomerase Detection kit, Upstate/ CHEMICON, Temecula, CA). Baseline and post-intervention samples for the same participant were assayed in the same batch and run on the same gel to eliminate any differences caused by reaction or procedural batch-to-batch variations. Technicians were blind to group assignment. Telomerase activity is defined as 1 unit = the amount of product from one 293T cell/10,000 PBMCs, and was quantified using the software ImageQuant 5.2 (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ).
Change from Baseline in Telomerase Activity at 4 months
Change in Psychological Stress (Baseline and 4 Months)
Time Frame: Change from Baseline in Psychological Stress
The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale was used to evaluate perception of stressful events over the past month by using a 5-point Likert scale (0 = never to 4 = very often) (Cohen et al., 1983). The mean of the ten items was used in analysis. Higher scores indicate greater perceived stress.
Change from Baseline in Psychological Stress

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of California, San Francisco

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Mount Zion Health Fund

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Elissa Epel, PhD, UCSF Department of Psychiatry
  • Principal Investigator: Frederick Hecht, MD, UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
  • Principal Investigator: Jennifer Daubenmier, PhD, UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
November 1, 2006

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
October 1, 2007

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
November 23, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
November 29, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
November 30, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
February 18, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 16, 2013

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • H11640-29259-03A
  • K01AT004199 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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