View clinical trials related to Compassion.
Filter by:The Wisconsin Center for the Neuroscience and Psychophysiology of Meditation will be a highly focused center dedicated to novel and cutting edge research on the mechanisms by which meditation works. The core set of hypotheses for this Center focus on the mechanisms of two common meditation practices: Mindfulness Meditation (MM) and Loving-Kindness/Compassion Meditation (LKM-CO), both taught in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The investigators will study both Long-Term Meditators (LTMs) as well as meditation-naïve participants (MNPs). The latter group will be randomly assigned to MBSR, a rigorously matched comparison intervention called the Health Enhancement Program (HEP; MacCoon et al., 2012), or to a Wait List (WL) control group. This will give us a comprehensive view of changes that are produced by meditation practices per se, changes generically associated with interventions designed to promote well-being, and changes that might be effects of repeating testing protocols across multiple occasions. In addition, the inclusion of both novice and experienced meditators provides a wide range of practice experience that will provide critical information on dose-related effects, information that is lacking in the research literature today. Each of the projects is focused on examining the brain mechanisms and peripheral biological correlates of meditation. Project 1 (Davidson) will examine the impact of the explicit use of mindfulness and loving-kindness/compassion strategies on emotion regulation, specifically neural, biobehavioral and hormonal indices of reactivity to and recovery from pictures of human suffering and flourishing. Project 2 (Rosenkranz) will investigate the brain to periphery pathways through which psychological factors contribute to the expression of asthma symptoms. In addition, it will examine the efficacy of meditation training in reducing the inflammatory response to an allergen in asthmatic individuals by reducing the reactivity of emotion-related neural circuitry. Project 3 (Tononi) will examine whether the previously reported increase in gamma oscillations during Non-REM (NREM) sleep in meditators is associated with changes in sleep mentation (Ferrarelli et al. 2013). In addition, project 3 will examine relations between meditation-induced changes in brain activity during sleep and brain activity and cognitive function during wakefulness.
The primary objective of this study is a proof-of-concept study to test whether a novel mindfulness based intervention, Positive Affect Training (PAT), can enhance positive affect and compassion, and decrease negative affect and feelings of depression. PAT involves a combination of practicing mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation in groups. The goal of the research is to test the initial feasibility and efficacy in increasing positive affect and decreasing negative affect in individuals recruited from the general community who experience negative affect. If the training proves to be successful, we will test the intervention, in additional studies, on individuals with dysthymic disorder and other clinical disorders. PAT is a cost-effective, non-invasive intervention. Therefore if effective, it could be an alternative or supplemental intervention option to existing psychotherapy for dysthymic disorder.
An urgent and growing need exists for interventions that support the long-term adjustment and mental health needs of OIF/OEF veterans and their relationship partners after the return from deployment. This project will complete production of a multimedia intervention program for autonomous use, delivered by Internet and mobile app technology, that teaches couples selected mind/body interventions and massage techniques to promote stress reduction, compassion, resiliency and relationship re-integration. A four-armed randomized trial will evaluate mental health outcomes as a free-standing program and as complementary to a current standard of care structured group program.