The Effect of Home Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation on Depressive Symptom in Major Depressive Patients.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the important cause of disability in the world. Major depressive patients that are not respond to the first and second drugs are about 67% and 33%, respectively. Therefore the effective treatment is urgently needed. Objective: To examine the effect of Buddhist mindfulness meditation combined with standard treatment on depression and quality of life in major depressive patient compared to the control group. Material and Method: It was a quasi experimental study. The subjects with age ranged 20-70 years old and had Thai Hamilton rating scale for depression 13-29 scores were divided in two groups, each group contained 30 persons. The intervention was Buddhist mindfulness meditation which meditated everyday at least 5 days/week, 15 minutes each time, for six weeks. Both groups were treated with standard treatment. All subjects were tested using Thai Hamilton rating scale for depression, and WHOQOL-BREF-THAI questionnaire at baseline and every week for six weeks. Compare the result of Buddhist mindfulness meditation by independent t-test and Chi-square. Results: The difference between the average of Thai Hamilton rating scale for depression (17.33+5.22 in meditation group and 17.67+6.33 in control group) and WHOQOL-BREF-THAI questionnaire (29.97+15.95 in meditation group and 31.33+12.12 in control group) before and after meditation was not statistically significantly among the two groups (p>0.05). However, it found that at the 6th week, 28 patients from the meditation group (93.3%) and 22 patients (73.3%) from the nonmeditating group improved from depression. When examining by the Chi-square, the meditating group had a statistically significantly different in the number of patients that improved from depression (p-value = 0.04). Conclusion: At the 6th week of Buddhist mindfulness meditation, significant number of patients were improved from depression. Thus, Buddhist mindfulness meditation should be included in the treatment of depression.

The Pilot Study of the Effect of Meditation to the Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) of Medical Students, Srinakharinvirot University.

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness meditation is a method to decrease stress and increase memory. So, mindfulness meditation should increase serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of mindfulness meditation on the serum BDNF of medical students. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study group consisted of 30 male and female second-year medical students that volunteered to participate in the study, aged 19.1 ± 0.55 year olds (range 18-20) from Srinakharinwirot University. Their blood was drawn to measure BDNF before and after a four-day mindfulness meditation programme. The comparison of serum BDNF levels before and after meditation were analysed by paired t-test. RESULTS: The subjects were 66.77%female and 33.33% male. The average serum BDNF level before the meditation was 17.67 ng/ml (SD 3.58). After meditation, there was a decrease in serum BDNF to 17.34 ng/ml, which was however not statistically significant (SD 4.04, p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The levels of blood BDNF decreases slightly after practising meditation. We plan to investigate the reason in the future.

Effects of mindfulness meditation on serum cortisol of medical students.

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness meditation is a method to relax the mind that decreases stress, which otherwise would increase serum cortisol. So, mindfulness meditation should decrease serum cortisol. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of mindfulness meditation on mental health by using Thai GHQ28 questionaire and study the effect of mindfulness meditation on stress by using serum cortisol. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Volunteer subjects were 30 second year medical students, aged 19.1 +/- 0.55 year olds (range 18-20) from Srinakharinwirot University. They were screened by Thai GHQ28 and blood was drawn to measure cortisol at 8:00 am before and after a four-day mindfulness meditation programme. The comparison of Thai GHQ28 scores and serum cortisol levels before and after meditation were analysed by paired t-test. RESULTS: The subjects were 66.77% female and 33.33% male. The average score of Thai GHQ28 before and after the mindfulness meditation was 1.50 (SD 2.53) and 0.77 (SD 2.08) respectively. The average serum cortisol levels before mindfulness meditation was 381.93 nmol/L (SD 97.74) becoming significantly lower after mindfulness meditation 306.38 nmol/L (SD 90.95). The difference was statistically significant in cortisol level, but not statistically significant in Thai GHQ28. CONCLUSION: Mindfulness meditation lowers the cortisol levels in the blood suggesting that it can lower stress and may decrease the risk of diseases that arise from stress such as psychiatric disorder, peptic ulcer and migraine. Then, mindfulness meditation should be used in combination with standard treatment.

The comparative study of depression between gifted children and normal children.

BACKGROUND: Gifted children have more depression than normal children because of their expectation to be the first. OBJECTIVE: Compare depression between gifted children and normal children. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The subjects, aged 9-12 years from Patai School, were 40 gifted children and 40 normal children. Their depression conditions were evaluated by using CDI score and taking saliva sample for cortisol measurement. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression by CDI score in 40 gifted children was 37.5% and the prevalence of depression by CDI score in normal children was 27.5%. The data was analysed by Chi-square test and the result was not statistical significant (p > 0.05). The mean salivary cortisol level in 39 gifted children was 4.91 nmol/l (SD = 2.12) and the average salivary cortisol level in 38 normal children was 4.14 nmol/l (SD = 1.92). The data was analysed by unpaired t-test and the result was not statistical significant (p > 0.05). There was no correlation between salivary cortisol and CDI score (r = -0.194). CONCLUSION: Gifted children do not have more depression than normal children. However, a larger sample size should be considered in the future study.

Platelet serotonin transporter in schizophrenic patients with and without neuroleptic treatment.

Among various hypotheses put forth to account for the etiology of schizophrenia, the abnormal function of serotonergic system has recently gained marked interest. Our previous study showed that drug-free schizophrenic patients had a significant increase in maximum numbers (B(max)) of platelet 5-HT(2A) receptors that declined to normal level after treatment with different neuroleptic drugs. To elucidate the role of the serotonin system in schizophrenia, the serotonin transporters on human platelets were examined in this study. Platelet serotonin transporters obtained from normal control subjects and schizophrenic patients were identified by using [(3)H]imipramine as the radioligand and fluoxetine to define the non-specific binding. The data showed that the mean B(max) of serotonin transporter sites for schizophrenic patients without neuroleptic therapy was significantly higher than in normal controls. The B(max) values for schizophrenic patients on phenothiazine, butyrophenone, thioxanthene and serotonin-dopamine antagonist (SDA) therapies were significantly lower than the B(max) values obtained from schizophrenic patients without neuroleptic therapy, and were comparable to those found in normal control subjects. The dissociation equilibrium constant (K(d)) values in all subject groups remained unchanged. The effect of various medication periods on platelet serotonin transporters was also studied. We found that, B(max) values of 1-4 weeks, 1-4 months, 4-12 months and >1 year of neuroleptic therapies were significantly decreased when compared with the unmedicated group. Significant reduction of brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS) occurred in all types of neuroleptics and every period of drug treatments compared with the unmedicated group. The present results indicate that alteration of platelet serotonin transporters is associated with schizophrenia. Treatment with various types of neuroleptics suppresses the hypersensitivity of platelet serotonin transporters. The mechanisms of how neuroleptics achieve their therapeutic effects, whether they act via or modulate serotonin system in certain brain area, still need to be further evaluated.