Mindfulness meditation for chronic pelvic pain management
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mindfulness meditation using a smart-phone application for women with chronic pelvic pain (MEMPHIS)
IRAS ID
163502
Contact name
Elizabeth Ball
Sponsor organisation
Director of Research Services & Business Development, Joint Research Management Office
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) in women is common, painful and disabling and\nputs much strain on women’s lives and the NHS.\n\nCPP may be related to internal organs, the nervous system or psychological factors and is often difficult to treat. Surgery and drugs have risks and side effects, are expensive and do not help all patients.\n\nPsychological treatments have potential to improve CPP but are not consistently available. Mindfulness meditation teaches people to accept their sensations and emotions in the present moment. This can help to accept pain better, which enables patients to focus on daily activities and improve their quality of life. It has been shown to help in headache, back pain and depression. Usually mindfulness meditation is taught by attending courses for 8 weeks.\n\nWe want to find out in a full-scale trial if mindfulness meditation, taught by\nusing a smartphone app, can help CPP patients.\n\nIn preparation for this full-scale study we will conduct the MEMPHIS study to answer the following questions:\n\n- How many patients are willing to participate?\n- How often they use the app?\n- Reasons for not wanting to participate/not using the app\n- Which health questionnaires are the most useful ones?\n- How many patients will be required for the full-scale trial?\n\nPatients will receive the usual treatment and be divided into three groups\n\n- using a 60-day mindfulness meditation app,\n- using comparison app with progressive muscle relaxation but no meditation\n- no app\n\nPatients will complete health questionnaires, may be asked to comment in\na focus group and record pain medication changes, surgery and emergency medical visits.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1967
Date of REC Opinion
1 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion