Meditation or Education for Alzheimer Caregivers

Completed · Phase 2

Conditions studied: Caregivers, Alzheimer's Disease

In brief

The goal is to determine how 6-week stress reduction techniques may decrease stress in primary caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease. The 3 intervention programs are meditation, education, and respite care. There will be approximately 108 subjects over 3 years. Subjects will have a screening session over the phone to see if they are eligible (50-85 years old, spending at least 12 hours per week caring for a close relative with Alzheimer's disease, willing to be in any of the 3 groups, and without any very serious medical problem). The subjects will have 3 testing sessions, 1 before classes/respite and 2 after classes are over, each lasting about 3 hours. The classes are taught in a one-on-one setting, and they are 50 minutes per week for 6 weeks. Respite care is provided for the person with Alzheimer's disease in all the groups. Measurements include people's ratings of stress, psychological testing, and biological measurements of stress, including the following: saliva, blood, and urine collection; waist-to-hip ratio; weight; blood pressure; heart rate; respiration; reaction time task; voice recordings; electrocardiogram; electroencephalogram; and electro dermal activity.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00558402

Run by

Oregon Health and Science University

People needed

72

Starts

2007-11-01

Expected to finish

2011-07-01

Last updated by the study team

2014-10-29

Who can join

Age: 50 and older, up to 85. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• 50-85 year olds who are the primary caregiver of someone with Alzheimer disease (family member or other close relationship)

You may not qualify if…

• cognitively impaired
• unstable medical problems
• untreated significant depression
• taking CNS-active medications that have not been stable for 2 months
• significant visual impairment (acuity worse than 20/50 OU)
• experience with meditation classes of with Powerful Tools for Caregivers classes
• not have significant baseline stress
• evidence on history of certain significant neurological diseases
• unwilling to accept randomization or to commit to attending classes and practicing the interventions

Where it is running

• Oregon Health & Science University — Portland, Oregon, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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