Dr Angeliki Bogosian
City University London
United Kingdom
A pilot randomised controlled trial of a mindfulness based cognitive therapy delivered by Skype for people affected by Parkinson's
Parkinson's UK
44,463
01/12/2015
1
Mindfulness based interventions have been shown to effectively reduce anxiety, depression and pain in patients with chronic physical illnesses. In this study we aim to develop and assess the effectiveness of an easy to access mindfulness based intervention, which aims to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms for people affected by Parkinsons disease. Participants will be recruited through Parkinson’s UK. Forty participants will be randomly assigned to the 8week mindfulness intervention (n=20) or a waiting-list control group (n=20). Randomisation will be block stratified with fixed block sizes and will be handled by an independent service. One-hour sessions will be delivered to groups of 5 people using Skype video-conferencing. Participants will complete standardized questionnaires to measure anxiety and depression (primary outcomes), social and physical impact of Parkinsons disease, insomnia, pain and fatigue (secondary outcomes) at baseline, completion of therapy at 8 weeks and at 3 months follow-up. As this is a pilot study analyses will largely be descriptive. Further, inferential analyses using mixed modelling will be conducted by intention-to-treat. At the end of the intervention, we will interview the participants of the mindfulness group about their experiences of the intervention. If the results show that these mindfulness courses are accessible, feasible and potentially effective in reducing psychological distress for people with Parkinsons, we will apply for funding for a larger multi-centre study with an active control group (e.g. supportive listening), to control for non specified therapeutic factors.