Objectives: The objectives of this study were to evaluate whether a mindfulness meditation intervention may be effective in caregivers of close relatives with dementia and to help refine the protocol for future larger trials. Design: The design was a pilot randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a mindfulness meditation intervention adapted from the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program in relation to two comparison groups: an education class based on Powerful Tools for Caregivers serving as an active control group and a respite-only group serving as a pragmatic control. Settings/location: This study was conducted at the Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR. Subjects: The subjects were community-dwelling caregivers aged 45-85 years of close relatives with dementia. Interventions: The two active interventions lasted 7 weeks, and consisted of one 90-minute session per week along with at-home implementation of knowledge learned. The respite-only condition provided the same duration of respite care that was needed for the active interventions. Outcome measures: Subjects were assessed prior to randomization and again after completing classes at 8 weeks. The primary outcome measure was a self-rated measure of caregiver stress, the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (RMBPC). Secondary outcome measures included mood, fatigue, self-efficacy, mindfulness, salivary cortisols, cytokines, and cognitive function. We also evaluated self-rated stress in the subjects' own environment, expectancy of improvement, and credibility of the interventions. Results: There were 31 caregivers randomized and 28 completers. There was a significant effect on RMBPC by group covarying for baseline RMBPC, with both active interventions showing improvement compared with the respite-only group. Most of the secondary outcome measures were not significantly affected by the interventions. There was an intervention effect on the caregiver self-efficacy measure and on cognitive measures. Although mindfulness was not impacted by the intervention, there were significant correlations between mindfulness and self-rated mood and stress scores. Conclusions: Both mindfulness and education interventions decreased the self-rated caregiver stress compared to the respite-only control.

We created a standardized one-on-one mindfulness meditation intervention with six weekly 90-minute training sessions and home practice. The trainings included didactic instruction, discussion and guided meditations, and home-practice guided meditations and mindfulness exercises. Twenty-eight participants completed mindful awareness, nonjudgment, perceived stress, positive and negative affect, and credibility/expectancy scales before and after the intervention. There were no adverse events or unanticipated side effects. Participants’ mindful awareness and nonjudgment scores and perceived credibility of the intervention increased after the intervention, while negative affect and perceived stress decreased. There was no change in positive affect. Future research is needed comparing group versus one-on-one formats incorporating participant preference in the randomization, personality, and other predictors as measures.

Difficulties in assessing individual differences in vividness and control of mental imagery hinder understanding of the role of of imagery in various phenomena. This study examined the relationships among the Gordon test of imagery control, the Betts questionnaire on imagery vividness, and a research questionnaire on control of imagery developed for this study. The research questionnaire demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and scores were more widely distributed than were those on the Gordon test. Correlations among the instruments ranged from .47 to .57, suggesting that vividness and control of imagery are not clearly differentiated in practice. Discussion of these results suggests that further empirical work is needed to establish the differential validity of the two constructs.

Investigated behavioral correlates of MMPI profiles of 363 male psychiatric Ss, classified by the Goldberg system and by two systems based on Welsh's factor scales A and R. For each profile category, frequency of occurrence for 81 behavioral descriptors from an adjective check‐list was compared with frequency in the remaining categories. Two of the systems were compared with classification by code‐type. Categories were not differentiated strongly on the basis of behavioral descriptors, although some trends were indicated. This study supports the position that interpretive systems that provide relatively few classification alternatives are of limited value in the interpretation of individual profiles. The results are discussed in terms of category heterogeneity.