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A pilot study of yogic meditation for family dementia caregivers with depressive symptoms: effects on mental health, cognition, and telomerase activity†

  1. H. Lavretsky1,*,
  2. E.S. Epel4,
  3. P. Siddarth1,
  4. N. Nazarian1,
  5. N. St. Cyr1,
  6. D.S. Khalsa3,
  7. J. Lin5,
  8. E. Blackburn5,
  9. M.R. Irwin1,2

Article first published online: 11 MAR 2012

DOI: 10.1002/gps.3790

Issue

International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

Volume 28, Issue 1, pages 57–65, January 2013

Additional Information

How to Cite

Lavretsky, H., Epel, E.S., Siddarth, P., Nazarian, N., Cyr, N. St., Khalsa, D.S., Lin, J., Blackburn, E. and Irwin, M.R. (2013), A pilot study of yogic meditation for family dementia caregivers with depressive symptoms: effects on mental health, cognition, and telomerase activity. Int. J. Geriat. Psychiatry, 28: 57–65. doi: 10.1002/gps.3790

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  2. 2

    Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  3. 3

    Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, Tucson, AZ, USA

  4. 4

    Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA

  5. 5

    Blackburn Laboratory, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

*H. Lavretsky, MD, MS, E-mail: hlavrets@ucla.edu

  1. †

    This article was published online on March 11, 2012. Errors were subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected [March 30, 2012].

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 6 DEC 2012
  2. Article first published online: 11 MAR 2012
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 25 JAN 2012
  4. Manuscript Received: 21 DEC 2011

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Keywords:

  • dementia caregiver;
  • stress;
  • depression;
  • resilience;
  • cognition;
  • Kirtan Kriya;
  • yoga;
  • meditation;
  • relaxation;
  • telomerase;
  • NFkB

Background

This study examined the effects of brief daily yogic meditation on mental health, cognitive functioning, and immune cell telomerase activity in family dementia caregivers with mild depressive symptoms.

Methods

Thirty-nine family dementia caregivers (mean age 60.3 years old (SD = 10.2)) were randomized to practicing Kirtan Kriya or listening to relaxation music for 12 min per day for 8 weeks. The severity of depressive symptoms, mental and cognitive functioning were assessed at baseline and follow-up. Telomerase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBC) was examined in peripheral PBMC pre-intervention and post-intervention.

Results

The meditation group showed significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and greater improvement in mental health and cognitive functioning compared with the relaxation group. In the meditation group, 65.2% showed 50% improvement on the Hamilton Depression Rating scale and 52% of the participants showed 50% improvement on the Mental Health Composite Summary score of the Short Form-36 scale compared with 31.2% and 19%, respectively, in the relaxation group (p < 0.05). The meditation group showed 43% improvement in telomerase activity compared with 3.7% in the relaxation group (p = 0.05).

Conclusion

This pilot study found that brief daily meditation practices by family dementia caregivers can lead to improved mental and cognitive functioning and lower levels of depressive symptoms. This improvement is accompanied by an increase in telomerase activity suggesting improvement in stress-induced cellular aging. These results need to be confirmed in a larger sample. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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