PARTNERS to Participate in $4 Million Research Study Comparing Stress Management Approaches

As a member of Patients, Advocates, and Rheumatology Teams Network for Research and Service (PARTNERS), the Lupus Foundation of America aims to improve healthcare and advance medical knowledge in the field of pediatric rheumatology. PARTNERS will take part in a $4 million research project to determine the optimal type and frequency of mindfulness-based treatment for managing stress.

“We believe that this research project has the potential to improve patient outcomes and we are proud to be a partner in this initiative,” said Sandra C. Raymond, Lupus Foundation of America President and CEO.

The study - Healthy Mind Healthy You: A Dose Finding Study of Mindfulness – will provide participants with either eight sessions of online mindfulness-based treatment (“standard”) or a brief three-session online mindfulness-based treatment (“light”) to compare the treatments’ efficacy and acceptability across a wide range of conditions and special populations. Given the substantial time and effort associated with standard (eight to 12 sessions) treatments, it is of interest whether standard mindfulness treatment is indeed superior to shorter mindfulness treatment.

The importance of mindfulness has been recognized as one of the top research priority areas by the Institute of Medicine, which recommended that researchers compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (e.g., yoga, meditation, deep-breathing training) for treating anxiety and depression, pain, cardiovascular risk factors, and chronic diseases.

PARTNERS is one of 20 PCORI-funded Patient-Powered Research Networks (PPRNs) participating in this study, which will also demonstrate the capabilities of PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network.