Chant and Be Happy: The Effects of Chanting on Respiratory Function and General Well-Being in Individuals Diagnosed with Depression

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
Molly Kenny ◽  
Raphael Bernier ◽  
Carey DeMartini

The effects of chanting on respiratory function and general well-being in individuals with mild to severe depression were tested in this pilot study. A total of 10 women and 1 man participated in this 8-week-long chanting program. All of the participants had been previously diagnosed with mild to severe depression. Several testing measures were employed. All subjects filled out a preliminary screening questionnaire and took the Beck Depression Inventory at the beginning of the study prior to their first chanting class and at the last meeting before chanting started. A 5-point Likert Scale Questionnaire was administered before and after each session. Spirometry was used to evaluate subjects' FVC, FEV, and FET. Each subject also self-administered pre and post peak/flow tests, taking the best of three forced exhalations before and after each chanting session. At the end of 8 weeks, our results showed that participants increased their breath control and overall expiratory output level. Additionally, 10 of our 11 subjects surveyed showed an increase in their overall mood on the Beck Depression Inventory. The score for one participant remained the same. Preliminary results from this pilot study indicate that chanting is an effective means of increasing people's moods in the immediate present, as well as over an extended period of time in which chanting is performed at least once per week.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-120
Author(s):  
Sayuri Asnani

This study aims to find the effectiveness of coloring art therapy against depression in a teenage girl in Yogyakarta. The hypothesis in this study is that there is a difference in the level of depression of the research subject before and after being given coloring art therapy. The level of depression after coloring art therapy was lower than before coloring art therapy. The sample in this study was a 13-year-old girl in Yogyakarta who had a history of being away from her parents and experienced moderate-severe depression. Coloring art therapy is given individually, twice, using drawing art media and markers. The subject’s depression level was measured using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) II scale from initial to final measurements. This study used one research subject with a single one-shot case study pre-experimental design. The data were analyzed by using visual inspection and qualitative analysis. The results of this study indicate that coloring art therapy is effective in reducing depression in young women.Abstrak. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektivitas terapi seni mewarnai terhadap depresi pada remaja putri di Yogyakarta. Hipotesis dalam penelitian ini adalah ada perbedaan tingkat depresi subjek antara sebelum diberikan terapi seni mewarnai dengan setelah terapi seni mewarnai. Tingkat depresi setelah terapi seni mewarnai lebih rendah dibanding sebelum terapi seni mewarnai.  Sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah remaja putri di Yogyakarta yang berusia 13 tahun, memiliki riwayat pernah berjauhan dari orangtua dan mengalami depresi sedang-berat. Terapi seni mewarnai ini diberikan secara individual, dua kali, menggunakan media seni gambar dan spidol. Depresi subjek diukur dengan menggunakan skala Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) II dari pengukuran awal sampai akhir. Penelitian ini menggunakan 1 subjek penelitian dengan desain pre-eksperimen single one shot case study. Data analisis dengan inspeksi visual dan analisa kualitatif. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terapi seni mewarnai efektif dalam menurunkan depresi pada remaja putri.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Argus J Athanas ◽  
Jamison M McCorrison ◽  
Susan Smalley ◽  
Jamie Price ◽  
Jim Grady ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The use of smartphone apps to monitor and deliver health care guidance and interventions has received considerable attention recently, particularly with regard to behavioral disorders, stress relief, negative emotional state, and poor mood in general. Unfortunately, there is little research investigating the long-term and repeated effects of apps meant to impact mood and emotional state. OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate the effects of both immediate point-of-intervention and long-term use (ie, at least 10 engagements) of a guided meditation and mindfulness smartphone app on users’ emotional states. Data were collected from users of a mobile phone app developed by the company Stop, Breathe & Think (SBT) for achieving emotional wellness. To explore the long-term effects, we assessed changes in the users’ basal emotional state before they completed an activity (eg, a guided meditation). We also assessed the immediate effects of the app on users’ emotional states from preactivity to postactivity. METHODS The SBT app collects information on the emotional state of the user before and after engagement in one or several mediation and mindfulness activities. These activities are recommended and provided by the app based on user input. We considered data on over 120,000 users of the app who collectively engaged in over 5.5 million sessions with the app during an approximate 2-year period. We focused our analysis on users who had at least 10 engagements with the app over an average of 6 months. We explored the changes in the emotional well-being of individuals with different emotional states at the time of their initial engagement with the app using mixed-effects models. In the process, we compared 2 different methods of classifying emotional states: (1) an expert-defined a priori mood classification and (2) an empirically driven cluster-based classification. RESULTS We found that among long-term users of the app, there was an association between the length of use and a positive change in basal emotional state (4% positive mood increase on a 2-point scale every 10 sessions). We also found that individuals who were anxious or depressed tended to have a favorable long-term emotional transition (eg, from a sad emotional state to a happier emotional state) after using the app for an extended period (the odds ratio for achieving a positive emotional state was 3.2 and 6.2 for anxious and depressed individuals, respectively, compared with users with fewer sessions). CONCLUSIONS Our analyses provide evidence for an association between both immediate and long-term use of an app providing guided meditations and improvements in the emotional state.


10.2196/12617 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. e12617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Argus J Athanas ◽  
Jamison M McCorrison ◽  
Susan Smalley ◽  
Jamie Price ◽  
Jim Grady ◽  
...  

Background The use of smartphone apps to monitor and deliver health care guidance and interventions has received considerable attention recently, particularly with regard to behavioral disorders, stress relief, negative emotional state, and poor mood in general. Unfortunately, there is little research investigating the long-term and repeated effects of apps meant to impact mood and emotional state. Objective We aimed to investigate the effects of both immediate point-of-intervention and long-term use (ie, at least 10 engagements) of a guided meditation and mindfulness smartphone app on users’ emotional states. Data were collected from users of a mobile phone app developed by the company Stop, Breathe & Think (SBT) for achieving emotional wellness. To explore the long-term effects, we assessed changes in the users’ basal emotional state before they completed an activity (eg, a guided meditation). We also assessed the immediate effects of the app on users’ emotional states from preactivity to postactivity. Methods The SBT app collects information on the emotional state of the user before and after engagement in one or several mediation and mindfulness activities. These activities are recommended and provided by the app based on user input. We considered data on over 120,000 users of the app who collectively engaged in over 5.5 million sessions with the app during an approximate 2-year period. We focused our analysis on users who had at least 10 engagements with the app over an average of 6 months. We explored the changes in the emotional well-being of individuals with different emotional states at the time of their initial engagement with the app using mixed-effects models. In the process, we compared 2 different methods of classifying emotional states: (1) an expert-defined a priori mood classification and (2) an empirically driven cluster-based classification. Results We found that among long-term users of the app, there was an association between the length of use and a positive change in basal emotional state (4% positive mood increase on a 2-point scale every 10 sessions). We also found that individuals who were anxious or depressed tended to have a favorable long-term emotional transition (eg, from a sad emotional state to a happier emotional state) after using the app for an extended period (the odds ratio for achieving a positive emotional state was 3.2 and 6.2 for anxious and depressed individuals, respectively, compared with users with fewer sessions). Conclusions Our analyses provide evidence for an association between both immediate and long-term use of an app providing guided meditations and improvements in the emotional state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Kartheka Bojan ◽  
Thanos G. Stavropoulos ◽  
Ioulietta Lazarou ◽  
Spiros Nikolopoulos ◽  
Ioannis Kompatsiaris ◽  
...  

Brain Training games are increasingly gaining attention as a non-pharmacological intervention to promote well-being and quality of life in people living with dementia.  Herein we present the COSMA software and a pilot study to evaluate its impact on the emotions of people in the spectrum of dementia. The software was created in accordance to the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines as a ‘brain-stimulating’ software for use by people with cognitive impairment i.e., mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early dementia. The pilot study aims to investigate whether the current COSMA game designs have an impact on emotions in people with MCI and early dementia. The emotional evaluation before and after playing COSMA games was carried out using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Our findings demonstrated a small, but significant increase in positive emotions (MCI: p= 0.041; early dementia: p= 0.042) and decrease in negative emotions (MCI: p= 0.001; early dementia: p< 0.001). These preliminary results showed that people with MCI and early dementia experienced positive emotions while playing the COSMA games, suggesting that people with cognitive impairment may benefit from using the COSMA software regularly.


Crisis ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Chen ◽  
Brian L. Mishara ◽  
Xiao Xian Liu

Background: In China, where follow-up with hospitalized attempters is generally lacking, there is a great need for inexpensive and effective means of maintaining contact and decreasing recidivism. Aims: Our objective was to test whether mobile telephone message contacts after discharge would be feasible and acceptable to suicide attempters in China. Methods: Fifteen participants were recruited from suicide attempters seen in the Emergency Department in Wuhan, China, to participate in a pilot study to receive mobile telephone messages after discharge. All participants have access to a mobile telephone, and there is no charge for the user to receive text messages. Results: Most participants (12) considered the text message contacts an acceptable and useful form of help and would like to continue to receive them for a longer period of time. Conclusions: This suggests that, as a low-cost and quick method of intervention in areas where more intensive follow-up is not practical or available, telephone messages contacts are accessible, feasible, and acceptable to suicide attempters. We hope that this will inspire future research on regular and long-term message interventions to prevent recidivism in suicide attempters.


1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aan Nuraeni ◽  
Ristina Mirwanti ◽  
Anastasia Anna ◽  
Ayu Prawesti ◽  
Etika Emaliyawati

Prevalensi Penyakit Jantung Koroner (PJK) terus mengalami peningkatan setiap tahunnya dan menjadi masalah kesehatan utama di masyarakat saat ini. PJK berdampak terhadap berbagai aspek kehidupan penderitanya baik fisik, psikososial maupun spiritual yang berpengaruh terhadap kualitas hidup pasien. Isu kualitas hidup dan faktor-faktor yang berhubungan didalamnya belum tergambar jelas di Indonesia. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mengidentifikasi faktor yang memengaruhi kualitas hidup pada pasien PJK yang sedang menjalani rawat jalan. Faktor-faktor yang diteliti dalam penelitian ini meliputi jenis kelamin, tingkat penghasilan, revaskularisasi jantung, rehabilitasi jantung, kecemasan, depresi dan kesejahteraan spiritual. Kecemasan diukur dengan Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale, depresi diukur dengan Beck Depression Inventory II, kesejahteraan spiritual diukur dengan kuesioner Spirituality Index of Well-Beingdan kualitas hidup diukur menggunakan Seattle Angina Questionnaire. Penelitian ini menggunakan rancangan kuantitatif deskriptif dan analitik multivariatedengan regresi logistic. Diteliti pada 100 responden yang diambil secara randomdalam kurun waktu 1 bulan di Poli Jantung. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan faktor yang memengaruhi kualitas hidup pada pasien PJK adalah cemas (p) 0,002; Odd Ratio(OR) 4,736 (95% confidence interval(CI), 1,749 – 12,827); depresi (p) 0,003; OR 5,450 ( 95% CI, 1,794 – 16,562); dan revaskularisasi (p) 0,033; OR 3,232 (95% CI, 1,096 – 9,528). Depresi menjadi faktor yang paling berpengaruh terhadap kualitas hidup pasien PJK. Faktor yang memengaruhi kualitas hidup pada pasien PJK meliputi depresi, cemas dan revaskularisasi. Dari ketiga variabel tersebut depresi merupakan variabel yang paling signifikan berpengaruh, sehingga manajemen untuk mencegah depresi perlu mendapatkan perhatian lebih baik lagi dalam discharge planningataupun rehabilitasi jantung.Kata kunci: Cemas, depresi, faktor yang memengaruhi, kualitas hidup, spiritual.Factors Influenced the Quality of Life among Patients Diagnosed with Coronary Heart Disease AbstractCoronary Heart Disease (CHD) has affected multidimensional aspects of human live nowadays. Yet, quality of life and factors associated with quality of life among people who live with heart disease has not been explored in Indonesia. This study aimed to identify factors influenced the quality of life among people with CHD received outpatient services. Those factors are gender, income, revascularization, cardiac rehabilitation, anxiety, depression and spiritual well-being. Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale was used to measure anxiety where depression level measured using Beck Depression Inventory II. Spirituality index was used to measure spiritual well-being. The quality of life level was measured using the Seattle Angina Questionnaire. This study used quantitative descriptive with multivariate analysis using logistic regression. 100 respondents were randomly selected from the Cardiac Outpatient Unit. Findings indicated factors influenced the quality of life of CHD patients using a significance of ƿ-value < 0.005 were: anxiety (ƿ=0,002, OR = 4,736, 95% CI, 1,749 – 12,827); depression (ƿ=0,003; OR=5,450, 95% CI, 1,794 – 16,562); and revascularizations (ƿ=0,033; OR=3,232, 95% CI, 1,096 – 9,528). Depression was considered as the most significant factor; therefore, managing depression is a priority in the discharge planning or cardiac rehabilitation programme. Keywords: Anxiety, depression, quality of life, spiritual, well-being.


2020 ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Patricia Diaz Ortega ◽  
Manuel García Manero

Introduction: Symptomatic uterine fibroids can cause symptoms that can be disabling. There are many treatments, including ulipristal acetate, whose role in reducing symptoms and decreasing the size of the fibroid is well known. With this preliminary study, we also try to evaluate the correlation between myoma vascularization measured by ultrasound (Power Doppler 2D) and serum VEGF levels, before and after treatment with ulipristal acetate; in patients diagnosed with symptomatic uterine fibroids. Materials and Methods: A preliminary, prospective observational pilot study was designed. Twenty-four premenopausal women, diagnosed with symptomatic uterine fibroids, were included and all of them completed the study. Four cycles of ulipristal acetate were administered according to the dose and indications specified in the data sheet. In order to assess the influence of this treatment on the angiogenesis process of the fibroids, measurements of VEGF serum levels were made and their vascularization was assessed by means of 2D power doppler ultrasound; at the beginning and the end of treatment. In addition, several determinations of the same parameters were made throughout the successive visits. Endpoints were defined as the decrease in VEGF levels from previous levels, the decrease in myoma vascularization on ultrasound, and the reduction in myoma size. Result: 24 patients who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled (n=24). The average size of myomas was reduced from 45,08 ? 24,02mm to 29?16,96mm after treatment. The average VEGF serum level significantly decreased after the first treatment cycle (from 147,17 ? 153,51 pg/ml to 102,04 ? 186,08pg/ml). Vascularization of myomas after treatment with ulipristal acetate was analyzed, and a significantly decrease was achieved in 83,3% of cases. Conclusion: There is a correlation between myoma vascularization and treatment with Ulipristal acetate. SPRMs may provide effective treatment for women with symptomatic fibroids by two ways: supports selective progesterone receptor modulators and reduced angiogenesis. Keywords: Angiogenesis; Ulipristal Acetate; Uterine fibroids; VEGF


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Banasik ◽  
Dariusz Jemielniak ◽  
Wojciech P?dzich

BACKGROUND There have been mixed results of the studies checking whether prayers do actually extend the life duration of the people prayed for. Most studies on the topic included a small number of prayers and most of them focused on people already struggling with a medical condition. Intercessory prayer’s influence on health is of scholarly interest, yet it is unclear if its effect may be dependent on the number of prayers for a named individual received per annum. OBJECTIVE We sought to examine if there is a noticeable increased longevity effect of intercessory prayer for a named individual’s well-being, if he receives a very high number of prayers per annum for an extended period. METHODS We retrieved and conducted a statistical analysis of the data about the length of life for 857 Roman Catholic bishops, 500 Catholic priests, and 3038 male academics from the US, France, Italy, Poland, Brazil, and Mexico. We obtained information for these individuals who died between 1988 and 2018 from Wikidata, and conducted an observational cohort study. Bishops were chosen for the study, as they receive millions of individual prayers for well being, according to conservative estimates. RESULTS There was a main effect for occupation F(2, 4391) = 4.07, p = .017, ηp 2 = .002, with pairwise comparisons indicating significant differences between the mean life duration of bishops (M=30489) and of priests (M=29894), but none between the academic teachers (M=30147) and either of the other groups. A comparison analysis between bishops from the largest and the smallest dioceses showed no significant difference t(67.31)=1.61, p = .11. Our main outcome measure is covariance of the mean length of life in each of the categories: bishops, priests, academic teachers, controlled for nationality. CONCLUSIONS The first analysis proved that bishops live longer than priests, but due to a marginal effect size this result should be treated with caution. No difference was found between the mean length of life of bishops from the largest and the smallest dioceses. We found no difference between bishops and male academics. These results show that the impact of intercessory prayers on longevity is not observable.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikki Theofanopoulou ◽  
Katherine Isbister ◽  
Julian Edbrooke-Childs ◽  
Petr Slovák

BACKGROUND A common challenge within psychiatry and prevention science more broadly is the lack of effective, engaging, and scale-able mechanisms to deliver psycho-social interventions for children, especially beyond in-person therapeutic or school-based contexts. Although digital technology has the potential to address these issues, existing research on technology-enabled interventions for families remains limited. OBJECTIVE The aim of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility of in-situ deployments of a low-cost, bespoke prototype, which has been designed to support children’s in-the-moment emotion regulation efforts. This prototype instantiates a novel intervention model that aims to address the existing limitations by delivering the intervention through an interactive object (a ‘smart toy’) sent home with the child, without any prior training necessary for either the child or their carer. This pilot study examined (i) engagement and acceptability of the device in the homes during 1 week deployments; and (ii) qualitative indicators of emotion regulation effects, as reported by parents and children. METHODS In this qualitative study, ten families (altogether 11 children aged 6-10 years) were recruited from three under-privileged communities in the UK. The RA visited participants in their homes to give children the ‘smart toy’ and conduct a semi-structured interview with at least one parent from each family. Children were given the prototype, a discovery book, and a simple digital camera to keep at home for 7-8 days, after which we interviewed each child and their parent about their experience. Thematic analysis guided the identification and organisation of common themes and patterns across the dataset. In addition, the prototypes automatically logged every interaction with the toy throughout the week-long deployments. RESULTS Across all 10 families, parents and children reported that the ‘smart toy’ was incorporated into children’s emotion regulation practices and engaged with naturally in moments children wanted to relax or calm down. Data suggests that children interacted with the toy throughout the duration of the deployment, found the experience enjoyable, and all requested to keep the toy longer. Child emotional connection to the toy—caring for its ‘well-being’—appears to have driven this strong engagement. Parents reported satisfaction with and acceptability of the toy. CONCLUSIONS This is the first known study investigation of the use of object-enabled intervention delivery to support emotion regulation in-situ. The strong engagement and qualitative indications of effects are promising – children were able to use the prototype without any training and incorporated it into their emotion regulation practices during daily challenges. Future work is needed to extend this indicative data with efficacy studies examining the psychological efficacy of the proposed intervention. More broadly, our findings suggest the potential of a technology-enabled shift in how prevention interventions are designed and delivered: empowering children and parents through ‘child-led, situated interventions’, where participants learn through actionable support directly within family life, as opposed to didactic in-person workshops and a subsequent skills application.


Author(s):  
Ben Y. F. Fong ◽  
Martin C. S. Wong ◽  
Vincent T. S. Law ◽  
Man Fung Lo ◽  
Tommy K. C. Ng ◽  
...  

In Hong Kong, social distancing has been adopted in order to minimise the spread of COVID-19. This study aims to examine the changes in physical health, mental health, and social well-being experienced by local residents who were homebound during the pandemic. An online questionnaire in both Chinese and English versions was completed by 590 eligible participants from 24 April to 13 May 2020. The questionnaire found that individuals aged 18 to 25 years spent more time resting and relaxing but experienced more physical strain. Working status was associated with social contact, with participants working full-time jobs scoring higher in “maintaining social communication via electronic means” and “avoiding social activities outside the home”. Additionally, approximately one third of the participants (29.7%) had moderate to severe depression, and participants aged 18 to 25 were found to have higher scores in PHQ-9. Changes in physical health and social contact were significantly associated with developing depressive symptoms. From the results, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to exert a negative impact on the mental health status of individuals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document