Meditation

The phenomenon of stress and its role in sickness and health is overt. Furthermore, various studies have confirmed the role of emotions in psychological well-being; but the relation between stress and emotions is one of the important issues about which there are different theories. The aim of the present study is to compare the effect of three interventions including: emotional expression, meditation and compound method on perceived stress. <br />The design used in the present study is quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest with control group and a two-month follow-up stage. Forty men who voluntarily had referred to Tavan Afza Clinic were chosen using hand-to-hand sampling method and were randomly assigned to four groups. The Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale was used in the pretest, posttest and follow-up stages and the intervention lasted for eight sessions within one month. The data were analyzed by covariance and T-test independent group test. The statistical data indicated that the difference between the compound treatment group and control group by the significance level of 5% and the confidence level of 95% was significant; but the difference between the other groups was not significant. The results indicated that the compound method can be effective in reducing perceived stress of the youth. Therefore, this method can be used as an effective way to reduce stress in the stressed-out people and to improve psychological well-being in the youth.

Objective: Alzheimer's is a progressive and debilitating disease of the brain that causes serious damage to human thoughts and memory and is associated with psychological disorders such as insomnia and agitation. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of body-centered meditation on insomnia and agitation in Alzheimer’s patients. Method: The research method was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. From the statistical population of patients with Alzheimer's disease in mild to moderate levels referred to clinics and Alzheimer's Association of Tehran province, 20 people were selected randomly based on inclusion criteria and assigned into experimental (n = 10) and control groups (n = 10). The research questionnaires were Morin's insomnia (1993) and Cohen-Mansfield's Agitation (1986). Meditation was administered to the experimental group in eight sessions of 90 minutes. The research data were analyzed using multivariate covariance. Results: The results of covariance analysis showed that post-test scores of insomnia and agitation of patients with Alzheimer's in the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group (P≤0 / 005). Conclusion: Body-centered meditation can be used to improve insomnia and agitation in Alzheimer's patients. Keywords: Alzheimer's Disease, agitation, insomnia, meditation, psychiatry