Yoga for Family Caregivers of Alzheimers Disease Patient

A Yoga and Compassion Meditation Program Improve Quality of Life and Self-compassion in Family Caregivers of Alzheimer's Disease Patients: a Randomized Controlled Trial

This study evaluates the effects of the practice of yoga in combination with compassion meditation on the quality of life, attention, vitality and self-compassion of family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress; Compassion; Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: yoga and compassion meditation program

Detailed Description

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that involves the loss of reasoning, memory, language and the ability to live independently. Thus, patients who suffer from this disease often require care from another person and must adapt to ensure their health, functional capacity and safety. Caregivers have a poor quality of life due to the physical and psychological burden of caregiving. Such physical, psychological, social and financial burden can increase the risk of death. Within this scenario, techniques such as yoga and meditation have emerged as low-cost interventions that offer little or no risk to the practitioners. Yoga seeks to develop health and attention through physical postures, breathing exercises and formal meditative practices.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 46
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• be a family caregiver of Alzheimer disease patient
• age over 18 years
• completed at least the primary education level
• at least at the phase of stress resistance according to Lipp's Inventory of Stress Symptoms for adults

Exclusion Criteria:

• patient with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• alcohol use (more than 5 drinks per week) or use of drugs-of-abuse;
• suffer from Cushing's syndrome
• under treatment with topical, nasal or any form of steroids within the last 30 days
• practice yoga, meditation or similar techniques

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Yoga and compassion meditation program; The duration of this group was 8 weeks. The program included sessions 3 times per week, with each session lasting 1 hour and 15 minutes. The volunteers performed yoga classes composed of "asana" (poses), "pranayama" (breathing exercise) and meditation.	Behavioral: yoga and compassion meditation program; 25 min of physical exercise, holding each pose (stretching exercise) for an average of 1 min and 30 s; 25 min of breathing exercises and 25 min of meditation.
No Intervention: control; this group was a non treatment group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
change in cortisol	Saliva samples were collected for analysis of cortisol	baseline, 8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
change in stress	Lipp Stress Inventory	baseline, 8 weeks
change in depression	Beck Depression Inventory	baseline, 8 weeks
change in anxiety	Beck Anxiety Inventory	baseline, 8 weeks
change in quality of life	WHOQOL-bref (World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire with 26 questions)	baseline, 8 weeks
change in vitality	Subjective Vitality Scales	baseline, 8 weeks
change in attention	Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale	baseline, 8 weeks
change in self-compassion	Self-Compassion Scale	baseline, 8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Federal University of São Paulo

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Danucalov MA, Kozasa EH, Ribas KT, Galduroz JC, Garcia MC, Verreschi IT, Oliveira KC, Romani de Oliveira L, Leite JR. A yoga and compassion meditation program reduces stress in familial caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:513149. doi: 10.1155/2013/513149. Epub 2013 Apr 18.

Helpful Links

• A yoga and compassion meditation program reduces stress in familial caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2007
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 1, 2008
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 28, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 29, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): September 30, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): September 30, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 29, 2015
• Last Verified: September 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: depression; anxiety; meditation; stress; yoga; caregivers
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neurocognitive Disorders; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Dementia; Tauopathies; Alzheimer Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: yoga caregivers