Li J, Zhang YY, Cong XY, Ren SR, Tu XM, Wu JF. 5-min mindfulness audio induction alleviates psychological distress and sleep disorders in patients with COVID-19. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(2): 576-584 [PMID: 35097083 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i2.576]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jin-Feng Wu, BSc, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 300 Guangzhou Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China. wujf64@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Infectious Diseases
Article-Type of This Article
Prospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Jing Li, Yun-Yun Zhang, Shu-Rong Ren, Jin-Feng Wu, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao-Yin Cong, Department of Psychology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Xiao-Ming Tu, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Li J, Wu JF, and Cong XY conceived and coordinated the study, designed and performed the experiments, and wrote the paper; Zhang YY, Tu XM, and Ren SR carried out data collection and revised the paper; all authors contributed to the data analysis, reviewed the results, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the ethics review board of Jiangsu Province Hospital.
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at the ethics committee of Jiangsu Provincial Hospital (No. 2020-SR-007). A separate document was uploaded as a proof of registry.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from each patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There are no additional data available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jin-Feng Wu, BSc, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 300 Guangzhou Road, Gulou District, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China. wujf64@163.com
Received: June 17, 2021 Peer-review started: June 17, 2021 First decision: July 26, 2021 Revised: August 8, 2021 Accepted: December 7, 2021 Article in press: December 7, 2021 Published online: January 14, 2022 Processing time: 208 Days and 22.6 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
At present, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is becoming a severe public health concern, especially in Wuhan (China), the most hit area of COVID-19 infection in China, which has set up and opened nine Fangcang Hospitals to treat patients with COVID-19. For patients with COVID-19, fear of the disease and negative emotions easily lead to a psychological crisis, and a timely and effective psychological intervention is of great significance.
Research motivation
Mindfulness meditation is beneficial to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population, but no study examined such meditation in the COVID-19 patients themselves.
Research objectives
The survey explored the efficacy of mindfulness meditation in alleviating psychological distress and sleep disorders in patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan Fangcang Hospital.
Research methods
This was a prospective study of patients with mild COVID-19 treated at Wuhan Fangcang Hospital in February 2020. The patients were voluntarily divided into either a mindfulness or a conventional group. The participants in both groups were treated with the same supportive therapy for COVID-19. Besides, the mindfulness group received mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, which contains a 5-min meditation.
Research results
After a 2-wk intervention, the mindfulness level (from 30.16 ± 5.58 to 35.23 ± 5.95, P < 0.001) and sleep quality (from 12.85 ± 3.06 to 9.44 ± 3.86, P < 0.001) significantly increased in the mindfulness group. However, there were no difference in the conventional group. After a 2-wk intervention, the mindfulness level (35.23 ± 5.95 vs 31.17 ± 6.50, P = 0.006) and sleep quality (9.44 ± 3.86 vs 11.87 ± 4.06, P = 0.011) were significantly increased in the mindfulness group than in the conventional group. Depression decreased in the mindfulness group (from 14.15 ± 3.21 to 12.50 ± 4.01, P = 0.038), but there was no difference between the two groups.
Research conclusions
The short-term mindfulness meditation can increase the mindfulness level, improve the sleep quality, and decrease the depression of patients with COVID-19.
Research perspectives
The short-term mindfulness meditation is very useful to patients with COVID-19, and long-term mindfulness meditation is worth further study as well.
