Qigong and Social Isolation: Mental Health Benefits

January 28, 2022 updated by: Jorge Pereira Machado, Universidade do Porto

Qigong Effects on Mental Health of People Under Relative Isolation

The objective of the study is to understand if Qigong may be useful in controlling the psychological state of participants in relative social isolation (during Covid-19 governmental imposed isolation procedures) The sessions are conducted live by the internet by a professional instructor-therapist with the duration of 2 months and a regular minimum of 2 sessions a week.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study's objective is to understand if Qigong may be helpful on the psychological state control of the participants in a relative state of isolation imposed by the government on the fight against Covid-19.

Data is gathered via the Mental Health Inventory (MHI) adapted to the Portuguese population to assess quantitative mental health scores and a simple structured interview to assess qualitative mental health benefits of Chikung (Qigong).

Qigong was the chosen technique to be studied as an intervention. Qigong is a Traditional Chinese Medicine therapeutic tool that has been studied for its several health benefits. As a traditional vegetative biofeedback therapy, Qigong can be useful for the maintenance of mental health of people with several conditions such as anxiety and depression, autism spectrum disorder and even conditions related to behavioral control.

  • Group 1 was composed of Qigong practitioners (for at least 3 months).
  • Group 2 was composed of participants who would receive the Qigong intervention (never practiced Qigong).
  • Group 3 was composed of control participants (who would not receive the intervention).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

64

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

  • Portugal
    • Porto
      • Maia, Porto, Portugal, 4470-765
        • Instituto Português de Taichi e Chikung

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

16 years to 70 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT, CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

-

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Physical or mental disabilities or conditions that may aggravate when performing semi-supervised physical activity

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: NON_RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Qigong practitioner group
This arm is the experimental group where qigong intervention is going to be applied to practitioners with experience
Other: Qigong
Qigong as a traditional chinese medicine technique, composed of several types of exercises: Baduanjin, taijiquan, yijinjing, baojiangong.
Other Names:
  • Traditional vegetative biofeedback therapy
  • Chikung
  • Taichi
NO_INTERVENTION: No practice
This group has no intervention and acts as control
EXPERIMENTAL: Beginner Qigong practitioner group
This arm is the experimental group where qigong intervention is going to be applied to practitioners with no experience.
Other: Qigong
Qigong as a traditional chinese medicine technique, composed of several types of exercises: Baduanjin, taijiquan, yijinjing, baojiangong.
Other Names:
  • Traditional vegetative biofeedback therapy
  • Chikung
  • Taichi

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Psychological Well-being (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means a higher Psychological Well-being (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Psychological Well-being (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means a higher Psychological Well-being (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks
Psychological Distress (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means a higher Psychological Distress (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Psychological Distress (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means a higher Psychological Distress (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Positive Affect (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means a higher Positive Affect (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Positive Affect (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means a higher Positive Affect (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks
Emotional Ties (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means higher Emotional Ties (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Emotional Ties (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means higher Emotional Ties (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks
Loss of emotional or behavioral control (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means a higher Loss of emotional or behavioral control (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Loss of emotional or behavioral control (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means a higher Loss of emotional or behavioral control (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks
Anxiety (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means higher Anxiety levels (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Anxiety (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means higher Anxiety levels (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks
Depression (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T0 - Baseline week 0
A higher score means higher Depression levels (0-100 score)
T0 - Baseline week 0
Depression (Mental health Inventory (MHI) dimension)
Time Frame: T1 - 8 weeks
A higher score means higher Depression levels (0-100 score)
T1 - 8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Universidade do Porto

Investigators

  • Study Director: Jorge Machado, PhD, ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar
  • Principal Investigator: Lara Lopes, MSc, ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar
  • Principal Investigator: Jorge M Rodrigues, BSc, ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar

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 (ACTUAL)

July 2, 2020

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

October 30, 2020

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

October 31, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 23, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 4, 2021

First Posted (ACTUAL)

October 18, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

February 11, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 28, 2022

Last Verified

January 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • QgIsolationMentalHealth

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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