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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MEDIT-AGEING (Investigating the impact of meditation training on mental health and wellbeing in the ageing population)

Teaser

Summary

MEDIT-AGEING investigates the effectiveness of a variety of interventions on ageing, with a key focus on mental health and well-being including Alzheimerâ€™s disease and its mechanisms. Researchers will study expert meditators and will also conduct clinical trials involving patients with existing subjective cognitive decline, and participants from the general public over the age of 65.
The first study (study 1, SCD-Well) will be assessing the effect of a short-term interventions on behavioural measures. Participants will be recruited from memory clinics and will have some level of subjective cognitive decline, so their improvement can be measured along with the intervention. Behavioural measures will be monitored to see how much of a difference can be made to participantsâ€™ cognition and wellbeing due to the intervention. This study will be conducted in four centres in four different countries (UK, Germany, Spain and France). The intervention will last for eight weeks and the effects will be measures just after the intervention and 4 months later.
The second study (study 2, Age-Well) will be assessing the effects of 18-month mental training interventions in cognitively intact older adults, and of long-term meditation in expert meditators, on both behavioural and biological measures. These measures will include blood sample analyses, sleep measures and neuroimaging data. The analyses will be split into two parts, the first one comparing data of expert meditators to those of cognitively intact older adults and the second one measuring changes before and after intervention, i.e. between baseline and 18-month follow-up, in the cognitively intact older adults. All data for this study will be collected in a single centre â€“ in Caen, France.

Work performed

To deliver and validate across four European countries a meditation intervention to an ageing population, we designed and developed original meditation and active control interventions for the SCD-Well and for the Age-Well studies. The interventions were delivered to the SCD patients in the SCD-Well study and to the 1st wave of seniors recruited in the Age-well study. We are currently delivering the intervention to the second and third waves of the participants of the Age-Well study. We have also started to recruit senior expert meditators.
We worked on the implementation of the questionnaire battery of lifestyle questionnaires that were carefully selected during the first period of the project, as well as on the optimization of the quotation, finalization of the harmonization of the questionnaires across European countries and validation and publication (in progress) of the adapted questionnaires. Preliminary analyses have been performed using a pre-existing database. We also worked on the adaptation and implementation of the English learning intervention manual and tasks. A publication is prepared to review previous studies on this field.
Another objective is to assess the effects of ageing and Alzheimerâ€™s Disease pathology on attentional performances and its neural substrates, and the mediating effects of an 18-month meditation training on these measures. We administered the fMRI attentional AX-CPT task, which had been designed and validated during period 1, to 137 participants at baseline and to 41 participants at 18 months follow-up (wave 1), as well as to 19 expert meditators. During period 2, we have also finished the acquisition of attentional and executive functions data of the SCD-WELL study.
Ethical approval were obtained for the 2 clinical trials. In the SCD-Well study, recruitment, enrollment and data acquisition were performed for 147 patients who were randomised to either the meditation or health education condition. In addition, 137 participants were included and randomized in the Age-Well randomized controlled trial. The baseline neuroimaging and behavioral data, and for the 1st wave post-intervention measures as well, were acquired within the Age-Well clinical trial. Three protocol papers for SCD-Well study, Age-Well clinical trial and Age-Well expert studies respectively have been published. We have also published a theoretical paper with the entire consortium where we explained the mechanisms for meditation to impact on ageing and Alzheimerâ€™s disease (ChÃ©telat et al., Alzheimer\'s Research & Therapy, 2018). With the objective of formulating a psychobiological model on the role that emotions plays in healthy ageing, we have published a review paper on this topic (Klimecki et al., 2019; forthcoming in Current Opinion in Psychology).

Final results

As life expectancy increases, the number of people affected by age-related conditions increases too. This can include mental health problems such as Alzheimerâ€™s Disease, memory loss and dementia.Research is needed to identify the determinants of health into later life. Our findings will contribute to important discussions around safeguarding quality of life for more of the population, informing healthcare providers and policy makers on interventions to help reduce the cost/care burden on health services caused by age-associated diseases.
MEDIT-AGEING is expected to result in:
- Improved therapeutic management of older adults affected by mental conditions and disorders.
- Maintenance of cognitive abilities of older people.
- Establishment of preventive strategies favouring the mental dimension of healthy ageing.
- Reduction of the negative impact of mental disorders on comorbidities.
- MEDIT-AGEING improving innovation capacity and integration of new knowledge
MEDIT-AGING is the first project to comprehensively study the short and long-term cognitive, emotional, and biological correlates and the efficacy of meditation within one multidisciplinary consortium. Novel mechanisms will be identified in a model condition (meditation experts) and in association with AD-risk factors in cognitively intact older adults. Our aim is to contribute to better-designed international prevention programs, sustainable policies on long-term care, and guidelines on promoting mental wellbeing of the ageing population. Understanding the determinants of wellbeing in ageing will also contribute to the development of age-friendly services and settings.