Traditional African Healing Ceremony in a U.S. Population

Depression Clinical Trial

Official title:

Traditional African Healing Ceremony in a U.S. Population

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01873482
• Other study ID #: Pro00042492
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: June 5, 2013
• Last updated: October 31, 2014
• Start date: May 2014

Study information

• Verified date: October 2014
• Source: Duke University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Institutional Review Board
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Pre-agricultural societies almost universally used healing ceremonies that involved reverence, rhythm and dance in the presence of a healer. It is believed that we are "wired" for such experiences and they foster an integrative mode of consciousness similar to that of mindfulness based stress reduction, which has been shown to have therapeutic effects in a variety of conditions. Collaborator Ava Lavonne Vinesett of the Duke Dance Program has developed a healing ceremony based in sub-Saharan African traditions. The investigators plan is to have 25 subjects with a variety of clinical conditions participate in this ceremony. Subjects will then be asked to write a commentary about their experience and to participate in a focus group discussion. It is anticipated that the study will give us some idea of how promising this approach would be and what kinds of patients might benefit. Safety issues are minimal and include the possibility of injury (though the dancing is not strenuous) and psychological distress.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 17
• Est. primary completion date: May 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 25 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 25 to 65 with one of the diagnoses listed above or with 8 visits to their provider in the last year and with no diagnosis of chronic illness.

Exclusion Criteria:

• physical disability making participation difficult and previous experience with a similar ceremony, for instance while growing up in Africa.

Study Design

Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Supportive Care

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Anxiety
• Cancer
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Depression
• Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Movement to rhythm
Movement to rhythm

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Duke University	Durham	North Carolina

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Duke University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Encounter group discussion		During the first hour after the intervention	No
Primary	Report from each participant as to whether they found the experience positive, neutral or negative.		During the first hour after the intervention	No
Secondary	written narrative of experience		During the first hour after the intervention	No