View clinical trials related to Stress.
Filter by:Background: Burnout and overwhelming stress are growing issues among surgeons and are associated with mental illness, attrition and diminished patient care. Among surgical trainees, burnout and distress are alarmingly prevalent but high inherent mindfulness has been shown to decrease the risk of depression, suicidal ideation, burnout and overwhelming stress by more than 75%. In other high-stress populations formal mindfulness training has been shown to improve mental health and buffer overwhelming stress and yet this approach has not been tried in surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of modified mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training among PGY-1 surgery residents and to obtain initial evidence of efficacy in regard to well-being and performance. Design: A pilot randomized clinical trial of modified MBSR versus an active control. Setting: Residency training program, tertiary academic medical center. Participants: PGY-1 surgery residents. Intervention: Weekly two-hour modified MBSR classes (compared to an active control) and 20 minutes of suggested daily home practice over an eight-week period. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary outcome is feasibility, assessed along six domains (demand, implementation, practicality, acceptability, adaptation and integration), using focus groups, interviews, surveys, attendance, daily practice time and subjective self-report of experience. Secondary outcomes include perceived stress, mindfulness and executive function (specifically working memory capacity), followed by psychosocial well-being (burnout, depression, resilience), performance (motor skills testing) and functional brain scans focused on areas associated with reappraisal as a surrogate for emotional control. This study seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of mindfulness training in surgery PGY-1s while simultaneously providing preliminary quantitative data on the effects of mindfulness training in a randomized, controlled setting. Data will inform modifications to the MBSR curriculum that enhance feasibility and inform sample size calculations for subsequent, adequately-powered RCTs which will likely need to be multi-center trials. Results could potentially impact formal medical training, the mental health of providers at every level, and the overall quality of patient care.
Studies show a high number of medical students suffering from mental health problems. Although there are several studies investigating how these problems could impact students' life and performance, few studies have investigated interventions to minimize this distress. One of these interventions is the mindfulness meditation, that has already been extensively studied in the scientific literature showing promising results. Nevertheless, there are very few studies which investigated how mindfulness could be implemented as a mandatory course. The present study aims to investigate (1) how students exposed to mindfulness differ from students not exposed to this technique concerning their mental health and quality of life in a short and long term period. This is an intervention protocol using a randomized controlled clinical trial with cross-over, in order to compare if the implementation of mindfulness for first year medical students will improve their mental health and quality of life in the short term (3 months). The intervention group (group 1) will be exposed to mindfulness in the beginning of the medical course and will be compared to a control group (group 2), not exposed to mindfulness (exposed to theoretical classes) for 3 months. After that, the intervention group (group 1) will receive theoretical classes and the control group (group 2) will be exposed to the mindfulness techniques for 3 months (cross-over). Therefore, both groups will be exposed to mindfulness in the first year of undergraduation, however in different moments of the course. Then, these first year medical students (groups 1 and 2) will be compared to another class (group 3), which didn't have this mindfulness mandatory course in their formation. They will be compared after 6 months, 12 and 24 months of intervention (long-term effect).
This research study is designed to answer the question: How does professional coaching impact early career academic emergency medicine physician goal attainment, leadership strengths, well-being, and burnout?
Pain is a common experience in youth and influences youth long after the painful situations are over. Youth memory of pain after surgery can affect painful experiences in the future. Negative memories and feelings of pain, like remembering more pain than the actual level of pain experienced are linked to anxiety for future surgery. Research has found that children's memories of pain is linked to anxiety, pain-related fear, and confidence. Children's memories for pain can be altered after a visit to the hospital, but only a couple of studies have look at this. The study will be one of the first to look at how well a parent-led memory reframing intervention to reduce youth's negative memories of surgery. We want to look at how a parent-led memory reframing session on youth's post-surgical pain memory. The study will include 90 youth who have a chest wall surgery or a spinal fusion surgery at the Alberta Children's Hospital. They will be recruited at the Alberta Children's Hospital. There will be pain tests in the form of surveys 1-3 weeks before surgery, pain monitoring in the hospital for a couple of days, pain monitoring 1-2 weeks after surgery, a clinic visit 2-4 weeks after surgery for a memory reframing session, and pain monitoring 6 weeks after surgery in the form of a telephone interview.
50-70% of adolescents gain too much weight during pregnancy, and this excess gain significantly increases their risk of high postpartum weight retention and long-term obesity. In this randomized controlled pilot study, the investigators are evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a relatively brief interpersonal psychotherapy program for reducing excess gestational weight gain during adolescent pregnancy. Compared to treatment-as-usual prenatal care delivered in an adolescent maternity clinic, the investigators will estimate the added benefit of an interpersonal psychotherapy program's effectiveness for reducing excess gestational weight gain, improving maternal postpartum insulin sensitivity, and decreasing maternal and infant adiposity.
Research suggests there is a connection between mood and weight. People who feel stressed or depressed are more likely to be overweight than people who don't have these feelings. Some individuals turn to food to cope, which can lead to gaining too much weight over time. Adolescence is an important time to understand these connections. Patterns of handling stress learned during adolescence set the stage for stress management in adulthood. This study is a randomized controlled pilot study with 60 adolescents who are at-risk for future, chronic obesity. The investigators will test if taking part in a 6-week group program to lower stress and improve mood will be helpful to teens at-risk.
1. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 1.1 Justification The purpose of the project is to examine the effect of breathing biofeedback and thoughts about stress on performance under stress and cigarette cravings. Smoking rates in the United States have been steadily going down over the past 50 years, and now 16.8% of adults smoke (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Most smokers try to quit, but end up going back to smoking (Garcia-Rodriguez et al., 2013; Piasecki, 2006; Rafful et al., 2013). The reasons people go back to smoking may have something to do with stress in their lives, particularly for women who smoke. This study wants to see if we can reduce temporary stress and lower craving to smoke after stress. 1.2 Description of the Research Project Approximately 60 adult women will participate in the study. Participants must be between 18 and 65 years old, able to read English fluently, and must agree to engage in the research procedures (stress protocol, physiological assessment, breathing training, questionnaires) to participate. People who are taking medications that interfere with physiological assessment are excluded from participating including people with: self-identified substance use problems, self-identified psychosis, morbid obesity (BMI>40), and people who take anti-cholinergic medication, beta blockers, Ritalin, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants or bupropion, varenicline, antipsychotic medication, or nicotine replacement therapy. People who have a cardiac rhythm abnormality or major neurological problem are also excluded from the study. Also, participants may not participate if they are pregnant or color-blind. Participation is strictly voluntary. 2. PROGRESSION OF THIS STUDY 2.1 Procedures The study visit procedures will take place at the Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory at Rutgers University, located at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Healthcare Policy, and Aging Research. Participants will first complete some questionnaires and provide some basic information about themselves (demographic information, responses to emotion and stress, and smoking history). Next, participants will engage in a baseline psychophysiological assessment where investigators will examine heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. Next, investigators will either ask participants to sit quietly for 30 minutes while completing a computer task and watching short videos, or practice a specific deep breathing exercise for 30 minutes. Then participants will do three tasks on a computer. The tasks will ask participants to trace different shapes, answer math problems while receiving feedback about how they're doing, and identify colors and words on a screen. Finally, participants will be asked to sit quietly for 15 minutes before investigators remove the psychophysiological recording equipment. One week after the study visit, investigators will contact participants via phone to ask them some questions about the study visit. 2.2 Duration of the study This study visit will last approximately 3 hours. Length of the visit may vary because each individual may complete procedures at a different pace. The phone call after the study visit will last approximately 10-15 minutes.
This open-label field trial evaluates the effects of treatment with a multi-pathway dietary supplement (Stem Cell 100+) that has been commercially available for several years. The objective of the intervention trial is to determine if normal subjects over 35 years of age experience any observable health benefits from the dietary supplement as to their blood pressure, pulse rate, blood cholesterol, lung capacity, stress levels, or self reported changes in markers of overall health and life expectancy.
Stress and anxiety can worsen quality of life in patients seen in primary care practices. This project is set in UPMC primary care practices (CMI) to evaluate how the availability of a virtual stress management program can help patients reduce stress and anxiety and improve their quality of life. The project will analyze the efficacy of the virtual stress management program at these practices so that it can then be utilized effectively in other medical settings where it can be offered as a part of clinical care to reduce stress and anxiety and improve the quality of life of medical patients who could benefit from a reduction in stress. This research is being piloted at these sites in the hopes of publishing results that show that it can be implemented in other practices throughout the country. Additionally, at other UPMC CMI primary care sites, de-identified data will be collected in order to serve as a comparison.
The proposed 2-year study has two specific aims: (1) to examine the effects of a "bundle" of supportive interventions on preterm infants' stress (salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA] levels and physiological signals of infant distress), sleep, and physical activity in the NICU, and (2) to explore the relationships among preterm infants' salivary cortisol and DHEA levels, physiological signals of infant distress, sleep, and physical activity. This randomized controlled trial will adopt a longitudinal repeated-measures design to examine the effects of bundled supportive interventions on preterm infants' stress (salivary cortisol and DHEA levels [using ELISA kit] and physiological signals of infant distress [using bedside electrocardiographic monitors]), sleep and physical activity (using ankle actigraphy) during their NICU hospitalization. Preterm infants (N=120) meeting the study criteria will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) control condition: usual NICU care + positioning + gentle touch +routine kangaroo mother care (KMC) < 20 minutes; (2) experimental condition: the bundle of supportive interventions (usual NICU care +positioning + gentle touch + modulating infant states + facilitated tucking + non-nutritive sucking + oral sucrose+ routine KMC > 45 minutes. Outcome variables will include infants' biological responses to stress (salivary cortisol, salivary DHEA, and physiological signals of infant distress), sleep patterns, and physical activity.