What's New in Mind-Body Research

Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy for Cancer Patients
The purpose of this study is to determine whether cancer patients who receive the mindfulness-based art therapy program demonstrate improvement in health-related quality of life, a reduction in stress-related symptoms, and enhanced coping responses.

The Efficacy of Reiki in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Reiki in the treatment of fibromyalgia (FM), a condition characterized by widespread muscle pain and stiffness, often accompanied by sleep disturbance, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, and psychological distress. Reiki is a form of energy medicine in which practitioners reportedly access universal life energy to heal patients, either by direct contact at specific hand positions or from a distance.

Effects of Reiki on Painful Neuropathy and Cardiovascular Risk Factors
The object of this study is to determine if Reiki will improve blood sugar control and cardiac autonomic function in diabetic patients with painful neuropathy.

Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Mind/Body Intervention This study will evaluate mind-body therapy for fibromyalgia, both in the short and long term. Preliminary evidence suggests that FM patients do benefit from mind-body therapy (Singh et al 1998; Creamer et al 1998). This clinical trial will randomize 110 patients to either a 12 week mind-body intervention or a 12 week education/attention intervention. The primary aims of this study are 1) to determine if a 12 week mind-body intervention improves in physicall functioning and pain iin the short term (i.e. at 12 weeks) in FM patients compared to an education/attention control group; and 2) to determine if a 12 week mind-body intervention improves long term (i.e. at 24 weeks) outcomes in FM patients compared to an education/attention control group. A secondary aim of this project involves determining if there are patient characteristics (i.e. disease severity and duration, demographics, psychological factors) associated with improvements in short or long term outcomes as well as responses to the mind-body intervention.

Transfer of neural energy between human subjects
The purpose of this study is to determine whether visual evoked potentials generated in one human brain by photostimulation can generate a correlated EEG signal in the brain of another human subject who is located at a distance and who is not visually stimulated.