CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Mindfulness therapy may be an effective way of
mitigating the stress experienced by spouses and other informal
caregivers for military veterans, a new study by researchers at the
University of Illinois suggests.
Kinesiology and community health professor Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo
led a pilot study that taught caregivers of veterans in central Illinois
mindfulness-based cognitive therapy skills. The caregivers in the
treatment group - mostly women caring for their spouses - reported
significant decreases in their perceived levels of stress, anxiety and
worry.
By contrast, the researchers found no significant changes in any of
these symptoms among the participants assigned to the waitlist control
group.
"This not only shows the feasibility but also the promise that
mindfulness has for improving mental health outcomes in this vulnerable,
hard-to-reach population," Lara-Cinisomo said. "Although the study
population was small, it shows that there's interest in this type of
programming."
The researchers reported their findings in a paper published in the journal Mindfulness and examined the feasibility of the intervention in another paper published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing.
About 5.5 million informal caregivers, usually family members,
provide daily care and support for U.S. military veterans. While recent
federal legislation sought to bolster the financial support and
assistance provided to these caregivers by offering programs such as
mentoring, support groups, respite care and sometimes stipends, these
services may be limited to those caring for veterans with specific
diagnoses or types of injuries.
Moreover, some programs are designed primarily to serve the care
needs of the veterans and only incidentally address the caregivers'
needs, the researchers wrote.
"While the Veterans Administration, the Dole Foundation and other
organizations are providing services, there's research to suggest that
some services often don't match caregivers' needs," Lara-Cinisomo said.
"Furthermore, there's been little research that has evaluated the
effectiveness of current caregiver services."
Lara-Cinisomo said that compared with caregivers in the general
population, those caring for veterans experience higher levels of
psychological distress, poorer overall health and increased "caregiver
burden" - which refers to the overall emotional, physical and financial
strain associated with providing multiple forms of care.
Additionally, caregivers of veterans engage in twice as much highly
stressful or physically demanding care, compared with other caregivers,
according to the study.
The majority of caregivers in the study had been providing care for
more than nine years and spent 21-30 hours solely attending to the
veterans' needs, in addition to other family obligations, Lara-Cinisomo
said.
A large proportion of the veterans they were caring for had
combat-related injuries along with a wide variety of other health
issues, including mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder,
diabetes, cancer, traumatic brain injury and Parkinson's disease,
Lara-Cinisomo said.
To be eligible to participate in the eight-week intervention,
caregivers had to be providing informal/unpaid care to a veteran, be at
least 18 years old, able to walk or sit to perform the mindfulness
activities and not have any mental health problems other than anxiety or
depression.
Of the caregivers who met the screening criteria and enrolled in the
study, 11 were randomly assigned to the mindfulness intervention and 12
to the waitlist control group. All of the participants completed the
study, and those on the waitlist were offered the opportunity to go
through the mindfulness training after the wait period.
Participants in the mindfulness intervention met weekly for two
hours of instruction on the skills and how to apply them in stressful
situations. These skills include focusing on body sensations to
eliminate and reduce emotional activity, and concentrating on the
present, as opposed to ruminating about their worries.
They were encouraged to practice these exercises at home for 30-40
minutes daily with the help of an audio CD. Participants reported that
they spent an average of 19 minutes weekly engaging in the activities at
home.
"Despite our small numbers, we were able to show that mindfulness
helps and that it should be pursued not only by researchers, but by
practitioners and those providing services to this population," said
Lara-Cinisomo, who is currently working with colleagues at the RAND
Corporation and Loyola University to build on these findings. "There
also might be some additional benefits for the caregiver and the
veteran, as well, that we should explore in future studies, such as
improved sleep."
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