None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This study seeks to determine if incorporating sounds into mindfulness programmes will serve as viable alternatives in enhancing mindfulness skills acquisition, emotional flexibility, and psychological wellbeing, compared to the breath and body, in participants with a history of depression or anxiety. Participants will first be screened in a pre-intervention interview (individually conducted) – using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5), alongside obtaining demographic information such as age, gender, meditation experience, and music experience. From the SCID-5, any participants with severe presentations will be excluded from the study, but will be provided with referral information as necessary. All participants will be informed about the outcome of the SCID-5, within 1-2 weeks of the interview. Suitable participants will then go through a pre-group session (individually conducted), where they will fill in the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). They will also have their heart rate variability taken during the pre-group session. Participants are then randomly allocated (using simple randomisation) to two independent conditions - “active control” (ie. mindfulness activities using the breath and body as attentional targets as per other mindfulness oriented programmes), and “sounds” (mindfulness activities incorporating various sounds as external attentional targets). All participants are blinded to the random allocation process. Following which, participants will attend eight weekly mindfulness sessions, each lasting one hour each (group settings of up to 8 people). Participants in the “active control” condition will first engage in two weeks of mindfulness familiarisation sessions, followed by six weeks of various guided mindfulness activities using the breath and its accompanying bodily sensations as attentional targets. Participants in the “sounds” condition will engage in two weeks of mindfulness familiarisation sessions, followed by six weeks of various guided mindfulness activities accompanied by unique soundtracks lasting 5-8 minutes long. Each soundtrack is only played once throughout the duration of the intervention. During the intervention, regardless of the condition they are in, all participants fill in an Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) at the start of every session; the FFMQ, BRS, DASS-21 and a session rating questionnaire at the end of every session. All participants will also be given session handouts at the end of each session. After the intervention, all participants go through a post-group session (conducted individually), which is identical to that of the pre-group session. Participants will be given opportunities to provide feedback regarding the study, during the post-group session.
Interventions
All participants will go through eight weekly (1 hour) structured mindfulness sessions. All sessions will be in groups of up to eight participants, and all sessions will involve direct face-to-face contact at Murdoch University (Perth, Western Australia). All sessions will be facilitated by the main student researcher for this study (Leong-Min Loo), who is a provisionally registered clinical psychology PhD student at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. The sessions will also have a co-
All participants will go through eight weekly (1 hour) structured mindfulness sessions. All sessions will be in groups of up to eight participants, and all sessions will involve direct face-to-face contact at Murdoch University (Perth, Western Australia). All sessions will be facilitated by the main student researcher for this study (Leong-Min Loo), who is a provisionally registered clinical psychology PhD student at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. The sessions will also have a co-facilitator (a provisionally registered clinical psychology Masters student). Sessions are supervised by a clinical psychologist. All sessions are structured - with a brief introduction, two scripted mindfulness activities, and two discussion segments. Materials are compiled into a comprehensive protocol. Mindfulness activity scripts are adapted from the book ‘The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness’. Participants in this intervention condition (hereby labelled as "sounds") will attend to moment-to-moment progression of unique sound tracks, with each track lasting approximately five to eight minutes long. Each track will only be played once throughout the eight sessions, and each session will have two tracks, except for the eighth session, which will have only one track. All tracks will have low arousal and positive valence. Participants will be given the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) at the start of the session. They will be given the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), and a session rating questionnaire, at the end of the session. Participants will also be emailed handouts containing a summary of the session and suggested mindfulness activities, after every session.
Sponsors
Murdoch University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Aged 18-65 Normal hearing History of depression or anxiety, with at least a current presentation of mild to moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety according to Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-42 (DASS-42; score of 10-20 for Depression, and 8-14 for Anxiety) Understand and read at least conversational English Stable use of psychopharmacology; on a regular dose for at least four weeks Comfortable with being in group settings of up to 8 people
Exclusion criteria
Diagnosis of severe psychopathological disorders that require more specialised and intensive interventions (e.g., psychosis, eating disorders, dissociative disorders, personality disorders, or other mood disorders specified by DSM-5) Presence of complex trauma, or other trauma-related disorders such as PTSD Substance and/or alcohol misuse/abuse that require more specialised rehabilitation and/or detoxification Neurocognitive impairments resulting from organic brain injury, acquired brain injury or dementia Current and/or ongoing self-harm, suicidal ideation or attempt (within the past 24 months) Hearing impairments (this includes the use of hearing aids)
Outcome results
None listed