Menopause is associated with problematic symptoms, including hot flashes, sleep problems, mood disorders, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and declines in cognitive functioning. Many women seek complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for symptom management. This article critically reviews the existing literature on CAM treatments most commonly used for menopausal symptoms. Electronic searches were conducted to identify relevant, English-language literature published through March 2017. Results indicate that mind and body practices may be of benefit in reducing stress and bothersomeness of some menopausal symptoms. In particular, hypnosis is a mind-body intervention that has consistently shown to have a clinically significant effect on reducing hot flashes. Evidence is mixed in regard to the efficacy of natural products and there are some safety concerns. Health care providers should consider the evidence on CAM in providing an integrative health approach to menopausal symptom management.
Study Objectives: Prospective memory, or remembering to execute future intentions, accounts for half of everyday forgetting in older adults. Sleep intervals benefit prospective memory consolidation in young adults, but it is unknown whether age-related changes in slow wave activity, sleep spindles, and/or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep mediate hypothesized effects of aging on prospective memory consolidation. Methods: After an adaptation night, 76 adults aged 18-84 completed two experimental nights of in-laboratory polysomnography recording. In the evening, participants encoded and practiced a prospective memory task and were tested the next morning. On a counterbalanced night, they encoded and practiced a control task, and were tested the following morning. Results: Increasing age predicted worse prospective memory consolidation (r = −.34), even when controlling for encoding, speed, and control-task performance (all ps < .05). Frontal delta power, slow oscillations, and spindle density were not related to prospective memory consolidation. REM sleep duration, however, explained significant variance in prospective memory consolidation when controlling for age (∆R 2 = .10). Bootstrapping mediation showed that less REM sleep significantly mediated the aging effect on prospective memory consolidation [b = −.0016, SE = 0.0009 (95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.0042 to −0.0004)]. REM sleep continued to mediate 24.29% of the total effect of age on prospective memory after controlling for numerous demographic, cognitive, mental health, and sleep variables. Conclusion: Age-related variance in REM sleep is informative to how prospective memory consolidation changes with increasing age. Future work should consider how both REM sleep and slow wave activity contribute, perhaps in a sequential or dynamic manner, to preserving cognitive functioning with increasing age.
Objectives
Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) is an integrative intervention designed to ameliorate addiction, chronic pain, and psychiatric symptoms. Although multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have examined the clinical efficacy of MORE, no study has quantitatively synthesized this body of research. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis of RCTs examining the effects of MORE on addictive behaviors, craving, opioid dose, pain, and psychiatric symptoms.
Methods
Relevant manuscripts were identified through comprehensive searches of four bibliographic databases. Two- and three-level random-effects models were used to generate synthesized effect size estimates, and meta-regressions were performed to examine whether study and sample characteristics influenced the magnitude of aggregate effect sizes.
Results
Our search identified 16 manuscripts reporting data from eight RCTs (
N
= 816). Moderate to small effects in favor of MORE were observed for addictive behaviors (SMC = − .54,
p
= .007), craving (SMC = − .42,
p
= .010), opioid dose (MC = − 17.95,
p
< .001), chronic pain (SMC = − .60,
p
< .001), and psychiatric symptoms (SMC = − .34,
p
< .001). MORE’s effects on psychiatric symptoms and craving were not moderated by participant race, gender, age, or income.
Conclusions
Study findings provide empirical evidence of MORE’s efficacy for a wide diversity of individuals, and as such, MORE should now be disseminated broadly throughout the healthcare system.
Meta-analysis Pre-registration: PROSPERO #CRD42022319006
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-022-01964-x.
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