Mindfulness and COPD qualitative study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing a non-drug treatment to help people cope better with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). An interview study with people with COPD
IRAS ID
134349
Contact name
Mike Thomas
Contact email
Research summary
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often have poor quality of life (QoL). Anxiety and depression are also common but often untreated. Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), a non-drug treatment programme, may help improve QoL and mood in people with COPD. It consists of simple yoga, relaxation and breathing meditation. It is normally taught in group classes over 8 weeks with daily home practice to learn the techniques. Although many studies show MBSR helps improve QoL and mood in people with other long term conditions, there is little research in COPD. The only published study found over 50% of COPD patients left the study because of the time commitment involved. Before we run a clinical trial of MBSR in people with COPD, we want to adapt the standard MBSR programme, so it is more acceptable e.g.by making it shorter and/or providing it online, with support, for people to do at home.
To work out how to adapt MBSR for people with COPD, we will interview 40 people with different severities of COPD. GPs across Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, and consultants at Southampton General Hospital will invite patients to take part in this study. We will interview patients at home or Southampton University to find out: if they would try MBSR, how to adapt the standard programme and how we can best recruit COPD patients into a future clinical trial of MBSR. The interviews will be recorded and then typed out word for word. We will analyse the interviews to identify and summarise the ‘themes’ that represent the views of all the participants. We will also find out if people with different severities of the disease/QoL have different requirements. These findings will help us develop a MBSR programme specifically for COPD patients to test in a clinical trial.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/EM/0315
Date of REC Opinion
9 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion