- ICH GCP
- US Clinical Trials Registry
- Clinical Trial NCT01251341
The Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation Study (CALM)
December 4, 2014 updated by: University of Arizona
Mechanisms of Meditation
The increasingly widespread use of meditation for stress-related emotional and medical conditions highlights the urgent need to rigorously evaluate mechanisms through which the benefits of practice might be conferred.
Primary challenges in this regard include evaluating dose response relationships between practice time and outcomes; clarifying whether physiological and behavioral effects of meditation derive primarily from non-specific aspects of training or result from specific meditation practices; and identifying molecular mechanisms by which meditation might affect physiological responses relevant to stress-related illness.
Recent findings from a cross-sectional study by our group indicate that young adults who are randomized to, and practice, compassion meditation demonstrate reduced inflammatory responses, less emotional distress, and reduced autonomic responses to a standardized laboratory psychosocial stressor (Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]) when compared to subjects randomized to an active control condition.
However, as a result of the cross-sectional study design and lack of a meditation comparator arm, these results provide only partial insight into key issues outlined above regarding the role played by specific meditation procedures and/or practice time in observed physiological and behavioral outcomes.
The primary hypothesis of the proposed work is that practicing a meditation procedure specifically designed to enhance empathic concern for others (i.e.
compassion meditation) will optimize autonomic reactivity to psychosocial stress in a manner that results in diminished activation of peripheral inflammatory signaling pathways and reduced behavioral distress.
Study Overview
Status
Completed
Study Type
Interventional
Enrollment (Actual)
226
Phase
- Not Applicable
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
-
-
Georgia
-
Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30322
- Emory University
-
-
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
Ages Eligible for Study
25 years to 55 years (Adult)
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Genders Eligible for Study
All
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- Good medical health
Exclusion Criteria:
- current major depression
- current substance abuse
- lifetime history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder type I as assessed by the Structured Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)
- suicidal ideation or suicide attempt within one year of study enrollment
- diagnosis of any serious ongoing medical condition including malignancy, auto-immune disease (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease), cardiovascular disease (other than hypertension), seizure disorder, endocrinopathy, chronic infection (i.e. human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B or C), renal or hepatic insufficiency, or any other current or past medical or psychiatric condition that might increase the risk of study participation in the opinion of study personnel
- treatment with psychotropic medications within the last year (i.e. antidepressants, anxiolytics, psychostimulants or mood stabilizers)
- active ongoing psychiatric treatment at the time of enrollment.
- use of any psychotropic medication (i.e. antidepressants, anxiolytics, psychostimulants or mood stabilizers) within one year of screening.
- chronic use of anti-inflammatory/immunosuppressive agents, including, but not limited to, aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, COX-2 inhibitors, corticosteroids, etanercept, infliximab, adalimumab or methotrexate.
- any significant past meditation training/experience (defined as meditating more than 3 times a week for a period longer than a month)
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: Prevention
- Allocation: Randomized
- Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
- Masking: Single
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
---|---|
Experimental: Compassion Meditation Group
|
Eight-week training in compassion meditation, using a protocol developed by Geshe Lobsang Negi, Ph.D. of Emory University
|
Active Comparator: Health Education and Wellness Group
|
Eight week training in health and wellness, using a curriculum developed specifically for this study.
|
Experimental: Mindful Attention Training
|
Eight week training in mindful attention, using a protocol developed by B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D.
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Effects of compassion meditation on inflammatory and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress using a longitudinal design.
Time Frame: Five years
|
Innate immune cytokine responses will be assessed before and after a psychosocial stressor to evaluate the differential impact of the two interventions and the active control.
|
Five years
|
Collaborators and Investigators
This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.
Sponsor
Collaborators
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Charles Raison, MD, University of Arizona
- Study Director: Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, Emory University
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
September 1, 2009
Primary Completion (Actual)
May 1, 2014
Study Completion (Actual)
May 1, 2014
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
November 30, 2010
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
November 30, 2010
First Posted (Estimate)
December 1, 2010
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Estimate)
December 5, 2014
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
December 4, 2014
Last Verified
December 1, 2014
More Information
Terms related to this study
Other Study ID Numbers
- 5R01AT004698 (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.
Clinical Trials on Immune System Processes
-
University of GenovaRecruitingInflammation | Frailty | Immune System DisorderItaly
-
OctapharmaCompleted
-
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases...RecruitingBlood Specimen Collection | Immunity, Mucosal | Immune System ProcessesUnited States
-
Appalachian State UniversityAmerican Pistachio GrowersCompletedInflammation | Oxidative Stress | Immune DysfunctionUnited States
-
Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish General HospitalRecruitingAutoimmune Diseases | Cancer | Immune System Disorder | Inflammatory ReactionCanada
-
Xiangya Hospital of Central South UniversityUnknownSepsis | Inflammatory Disorder of Immune System
-
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion...WithdrawnInflammation | Obesity | Immune System Disorder
-
Sarah Kessler, PhD, MPHEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development...CompletedHIVUnited States, Kenya
-
Appalachian State UniversityOcean Spray, Inc.CompletedInflammatory Response | Metabolic Disturbance | Immune SuppressionUnited States
-
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases...CompletedImmune Reconstitution Inflammatory SyndromeUnited States, Thailand
Clinical Trials on Cognitive-Based Compassion Training
-
University of ArizonaCompletedImmune System Processes | Inflammatory Activation and Modulation | ANS FunctionUnited States
-
Emory UniversityCompletedBehavioral Resilience | Biological ResilienceUnited States
-
Emory UniversityCompletedHuman Immunodeficiency VirusUnited States
-
Emory UniversityBrain & Behavior Research Foundation; Mind and Life Institute, Hadley, MassachusettsCompletedProlonged Post-traumatic Stress DisorderUnited States
-
St Vincent's University Hospital, IrelandUnknown
-
University of ArizonaNational Cancer Institute (NCI)RecruitingPsychological Distress | Breast Cancer FemaleUnited States
-
Emory UniversityCompleted
-
Universidad Pontificia de SalamancaMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación, SpainRecruitingInflammatory Response | Well-being | Mental Health | Mindfulness | Cardiovascular Health | Self-compassionSpain
-
Universidad Complutense de MadridCompletedStress | Compassion | Psychological Distress | Emotion Regulation | Psychophysiologic Reaction | MindfulnessSpain