A pilot study of the effects of meditation on regional brain metabolism in distressed dementia caregivers - PubMed (original) (raw)

A pilot study of the effects of meditation on regional brain metabolism in distressed dementia caregivers

Kelsey L Pomykala et al. Aging health. 2012.

Abstract

AIMS: Caregiver distress can affect mood and cognition. Meditation can be used to reduce stress. This pilot study explored whether yogic meditation could change regional cerebral metabolism in distressed caregivers. METHODS: Nine dementia caregivers were randomized to undergo meditation training compared with relaxation for 12 min per day for 8 weeks. Caregivers received neuropsychiatric assessments and brain FDG-PET scans at baseline and postintervention. RESULTS: The groups did not differ on measures of mood, mental and physical health, and burden at baseline and follow-up. When comparing the regional cerebral metabolism between groups, significant differences over time were found in the bilateral cerebellum (p < 0.0005), right inferior lateral anterior temporal (p < 0.0005), right inferior frontal (p = 0.001), left superior frontal (p = 0.001), left associative visual (p = 0.002) and right posterior cingulate (p = 0.002) cortices. CONCLUSION: Meditation practice in distressed caregivers resulted in different patterns of regional cerebral metabolism from relaxation. These pilot results should be replicated in a larger study.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1. Group differences in metabolic brain changes in the right inferior frontal cortex

Cross-sectional view displays the crosshair intersection at (30, 26, -24 mm [x,y,z] coordinates), within the right inferior frontal area. Lighter pixels represent the regions of the brain that were significantly different between the meditation group and the relaxation group over time (t = 4.74 with p = 0.001, 160 contiguous voxels at p < 0.01).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Group differences in metabolic brain changes in the left associative visual cortex

Cross-sectional view displays the crosshair intersection at (-44, -74, -16 mm [x,y,z] coordinates), within the left associative visual cortex. Lighter pixels represent the regions of the brain that had lower metabolism in the meditation group compared with the control group postintervention (t = 4.15; p = 0.002).

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