Objective: This clinical trial aims to investigate the effects and feasibility of a newly developed 8-week mindfulness intervention on self-awareness in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Additionally, its impact on affective and cognitive measures is also being evaluated by connecting behavioral, neurobiological and qualitative data.

Background: The research interest in the phenomenon of impaired self-awareness for motor symptoms (ISAm) and also non-motor symptoms in PD is growing. As an impaired self-awareness might negatively influence a patient’s everyday life, this training program called IPSUM seeks to improve self-awareness by increasing the patients’ mindfulness and thus their ability to observe the present moment.

Method: By comparing an intervention group with a waitlist-control group in a pre-post design, IPSUM’s effectivity is evaluated. In total, up to 60 non-demented, non-depressed patients with PD will be included. The primary outcome is a quantitative score for measuring ISAm. Secondary outcomes are affective changes, neuropsychological performance and self-awareness of cognition. Data of fMRI scans and semi-structured interviews will also be analyzed. IPSUM’s feasibility is mainly evaluated by feedback data conducted in and after the last training session.

Results: At this point in time 28 patients (intervention group n = 16, control group n = 12) have completed post-measurements. Feedback data of patients who completed the training protocol is quite positive. All patients would recommend the training to other patients with 85% of patients rating the program as being “very good”. Comparing pre-post data, descriptive interim analyses show a significant increase of mindful observation, as measured by the respective FFMQ-D subscale, over time in the intervention group only. It correlates negatively with self-reported cognitive performance issues (CFQ and DEX) and anxiety (STAI-T) at post-measurement solely in the intervention group.

Conclusion: Preliminary descriptive results indicate IPSUM’s possible effectiveness while also providing acceptable feasibility. As the study goes on, more data will be conducted and further statistical analyses performed. Preliminary data will be presented soon. We hope for this intervention to be effective in increasing patients’ self-awareness and thus quality of life.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/using-mindfulness-to-improve-self-awareness-in-parkinsons-disease-patients-preliminary-results-of-a-randomized-controlled-trial/