Stress Management and Mind-Body Medicine: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Evaluation of Students' Health and Effects of a Behavioral Group Intervention at a Middle-Size German University (SM-MESH)

Abstract

Background: Student life can be stressful. Hence, we started a regular mind-body medical stress management program in 2006. By today, more than 500 students took part and evaluations showed significant results, especially with regard to a reduction of stress warning signals. For further analysis, we now decided to run a randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Methods: Participating students at Coburg University were randomized into an intervention (n = 24) or a waitlist control group (n = 19). The intervention group completed 3 sets (pre/post/follow-up) and the control group 2 sets (pre/post) of self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaires included: SF-12 Health Survey, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Sense of Coherence (SOC-L9), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) concerning stress, and the Stress Warning Signs (SWS) scale. Randomly selected participants of the intervention group were also queried in qualitative interviews. The intervention consisted of an 8 week stress management group program (mind-body medical stress reduction - MBMSR). Follow-up measures were taken after 6 months. Results: Virtually, no drop-out occurred. Our study showed significant effects in the intervention group concerning SF-12 Mental Component Scale (p = 0.05), SF-12 Physical Component Scale (p = 0.001), VAS (in general, p = 0.001) and SWS (emotional reactions, p <0.001), underlined by qualitative results, which showed a higher quality of life. Conclusions: The effectiveness of an MBMSR program in a group of supposedly healthy students could be demonstrated. Findings suggest that stress management might be given importance at universities that care for the performance, the quality of life, and stress-health status of their students, acknowledging and accounting for the challenging circumstances of university life, as well as the specific needs of the modern student population.

Evaluation of a Seven-Week Web-Based Happiness Training to Improve Psychological Well-Being, Reduce Stress, and Enhance Mindfulness and Flourishing: A Randomized Controlled Occupational Health Study

“…The rating follows a 10-point system (0 = does not stress me at all, 10 = stresses me a lot). The scale was developed and validated by Esch et al [23, 24]. Example items for vegetative-endocrinological symptoms are “rapid heartbeat,” “chest tightness,” or “excessive sweating.”…”

“…A pilot study showed internal consistency and a moderately high reliability and validity [27]. We used a German version of this questionnaire (FS-D) translated by Esch et al [23, 24]. Example items are “I lead a purposeful and meaningful life” and “I am engaged and interested in my daily activities.”…”

Changes and Interactions of Flourishing, Mindfulness, Sense of Coherence, and Quality of Life in Patients of a Mind-Body Medicine Outpatient Clinic

“…Here, scholars use multidimensional scales to evaluate how well individuals see themselves functioning as they strive to achieve sufficient levels of purpose, contribution, integration, autonomy, intimacy, acceptance, and mastery in life. Further, positive psychology and stress management approaches, such as MBM, may use these measures on stress and the outcome of interventions for behavior change and stress resilience training [34,35,36], or they may use integral, i.e. short-form flourishing scales [37,38].…”

Mindfulness Meditation and Fantasy Relaxation in a Group Setting Leads to a Diminished Sense of Self and an Increased Present Orientation

“…Thus, they had some prior exposure to both types of relaxation inductions utilized in this study. They had been introduced to the theory of mind-body techniques and also participated in an 8-week mind-body related stress-reduction program in the foregoing semester, which has been described and evaluated elsewhere [25,26]. The current study was conducted at the end of the fourth semester, after the students had been introduced to different forms of relaxation techniques including mindfulness meditation, walking meditation, fantasy journey, as well as yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, and autogenic training under the supervision of two mind-body experts for the whole semester (NK and TE).…”