Transcendental Meditation for the improvement of health and wellbeing in community-dwelling dementia caregivers [TRANSCENDENT]: a randomised wait-list controlled trial

Abstract

BackgroundDementia is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder affecting an estimated 24.3 million people across the globe. The burden on those caring for people with dementia is substantial, with widespread implications for the caregiver, the care recipient and the community. Relaxation techniques, such as Transcendental Meditation® (TM), have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in healthy workers; similar benefits are anticipated in dementia caregivers. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether TM can improve psychological stress, quality of life, affect and cognitive performance in dementia caregivers.MethodsThe study was conducted as a pilot prospective, multi-centre, community-based, randomised wait-list controlled trial. Community-dwelling caregivers of persons with diagnosed dementia were randomly assigned to a 12-week (14-hour) TM training program or wait-list control. Participants were assessed for quality of life, stress, affect, cognitive performance and adverse effects. The feasibility of the study was also evaluated.ResultsSeventeen caregivers were recruited and randomised. Improvements in WebNeuro response speed scores over time were significantly (p = 0.03) greater in the TM group relative to control. Changes between groups over time in all other primary and secondary outcome measures did not reach statistical significance. However, there was a trend toward greater improvement in WebNeuro stress, depression and negativity bias scores in the TM group. Adverse events were reported amongst 63 % of TM-treated subjects; however, events were generally transient, of mild-moderate intensity and only ‘possibly’ related to TM.ConclusionsDementia caregivers exposed to TM demonstrated varying degrees of improvement in several measures of cognitive function, mood, quality of life and stress following exposure to TM. However, as the pilot study was underpowered, no firm conclusions can be made about the effectiveness of TM in this caregiver population. Findings from full-scale trials are now warranted.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12613000184774 (Registered 15th February 2013).

Effectiveness of Resilience Education in the Mental Health of Family Caregivers of Elderly Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

“…This can be due to that mental health promotion is dependent on health literacy rather than education level. However, this finding is in contrast to the results of Leach et al (6). Marital status was another irrelevant factor found in this study, while Andren and Elmstahl considered married caregivers to have more social support networks, resulting in less stress and better mental health (20).…”

“…caregivers' physical and psychological health (1). Other research has found that the employment of resilience training offers many advantages (5)(6)(7). Many resilience studies explore personal characteristics that may affect coping or resilience and focus on individuals experiencing specific adverse circumstances (e.g., illness, bereavement, abuse, etc.).…”

Effects of Meditation versus Music Listening on Perceived Stress, Mood, Sleep, and Quality of Life in Adults with Early Memory Loss: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Of the few trials of non-KK mantra meditation [189, 190], mindfulness meditation [191–195] and other meditation practices [196] in older adults that have assessed cognitive function, most have shown minimal or no improvement [190–195], including two recent large RCTs of MBSR in generally healthy elders [191, 193]. To date, only two published trials of non-KK meditation have included adults with memory complaints, and only one specifically targeted this population.…”

“…Likewise, observed effects on neuropsychiatric impairment and QOL in older adults, including those with memory loss, have tended to be modest, with several studies showing limited or no improvement with either insight meditation [191–194] or TM [190]. In contrast, preliminary trials to date of KK meditation in dementia caregivers [153, 197] and adults with early memory loss [94] have shown improvements in both cognitive function and psychosocial status consistent with those observed in the current study.…”

Satisfaction with Health Care Interventions among Community Dwelling People with Cognitive Disorders and Their Informal Caregivers—A Systematic Review

“…The 35 papers included a total of 3501 participants (Table 1), both caregivers and care recipients with a cognitive disorder. The papers described studies carried out in Asia [17,32,34], Europe [18,23,26,28,37,38,40,41,48], North America [16,[19][20][21][22]24,25,27,[29][30][31]35,36,39,[42][43][44][45][46][47] and Australia [14,15,33]. In 28 studies, data were collected in the homes of the participants using a face-to-face or in-person approach, telephone sessions or both.…”