Inhaltszusammenfassung

Background: Chronic depression is associated with much psychological distress and causes great financial burden. A treatment approach that might be effective is loving kindness meditation (LKM). Method: An LKM approach was employed and evaluated in this pilot study, in which 2,207 patients on a waiting list were matched stepwise to patients undergoing LKM (n = 12). Two control groups were generated by first applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria (n = 134) and then using propensity scor...Background: Chronic depression is associated with much psychological distress and causes great financial burden. A treatment approach that might be effective is loving kindness meditation (LKM). Method: An LKM approach was employed and evaluated in this pilot study, in which 2,207 patients on a waiting list were matched stepwise to patients undergoing LKM (n = 12). Two control groups were generated by first applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria (n = 134) and then using propensity score matching (PSM) to adjust the remaining sample based on covariate distributions (n = 12). The groups were compared using the Outcome Questionnaire-30 (OQ-30). Results: In the pre-post comparison, significant improvements were found in the OQ-30. However, this was not the case for the symptomspecific instruments (Beck Depression Inventory-II [BDI-II] and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale [HAM-D]). Compared with the full waiting list sample (n = 134), there were significant improvements in the OQ-30. Compared with the PSM sample, there were marginally significant differences in the OQ-30; significant differences were detected with regard to the depression-related items of the OQ-30. There were more reliable improvements in the OQ-30 in the intervention group than in the control groups. Conclusion: The pilot study showed a lower drop-out rate than previous pilot studies and good pre-post effect sizes in the OQ-30, as well as good effect sizes compared with the two control groups. However, there were no consistent pre-post effects in the depression scales. A more extensive study with an active control group is needed to further investigate the program in terms of its effectiveness, drop-out, and heterogeneity of effects in the depression scales. » weiterlesen» einklappen

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