The effects of a 5-day meditation intervention in prison population
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Psychological and biological effects of intensive mindfulness meditation on offenders with dangerous and severe personality disorder: A randomised controlled trial
IRAS ID
204843
Contact name
Miguel Farias
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Coventry University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 17 days
Research summary
We aim to explore the psychobiological effects of a 5-day meditation intervention on offenders within dangerous and severe personality disorders (DSPD) unit at HMP Whitemoor. DSPD unit accommodates offenders with psychopathy or with two or more personality disorders. DPSD unit provides them with a 5-year rehabilitation programme that consists of group and individual therapy and aims to improve their self-regulation.
This project includes a total of 60 participants and has two major methodological innovations. First, we will include yoga as an active control group that will be matched to the meditation intervention (which means it will have the same length and the same social components) and a passive control group that will be following their usual regimen. Thus, the effects of meditation will be contrasted with another type of intervention and with not receiving any intervention.
The second methodological innovation is the combination of psychological and biological measures. Psychological measures include questionnaires (emotion regulation, mindfulness, stress) and cognitive measures (attention,empathy,behavioural control). Biological measures include electroencephaloraphy (EEG) to measure brain activity related to empathy; gene expression and proteins interlukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) to measure changes in immune system; and stress related hormone cortisol.
We also aim to determine to whom does meditation benefit the most. We will explore how initial expectations of meditation, personality, mood and previous life adversity predict outcomes of meditation or yoga. The data will be collected at three time points: at baseline, immediately after and 12-24 weeks after the 5-day intervention.
We expect that yoga and meditation will lead to a range of positive effects on mental and physical health, which will not observed in the passive control group. If these hypothesis are confirmed, these results will extend previous findings on the benefits of meditation and yoga to vulnerable populations, and would provide a cost-effective addition to prisoner rehabilitation.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0247
Date of REC Opinion
13 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion