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Revista Brasileira de Educação Médica
Print version ISSN 0100-5502On-line version ISSN 1981-5271
Abstract
MALHEIROS, Pablo Coutinho; VANDERLEI, Aleska Dias and BRUM, Evanisa Helena Maio de. Meditation for stress and anxiety relief in undergraduate students: a randomized clinical trial. Rev. Bras. Educ. Med. [online]. 2023, vol.47, n.1, e025. Epub Mar 17, 2023. ISSN 1981-5271. https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-5271v47.1-20220021.
Introduction:
Stress is a state in which the body homeostasis is threatened, leading to adaptive, physiological and behavioral responses. Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling that occurs whenever a future potential threat is perceived. Whenever these states are prolonged, both lead to metabolic, cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric and immunological consequences. University students are more susceptible to stress and anxiety symptoms than the general population. Mindfulness is a technique that allows its practitioners to become more aware of their emotions, dealing with stress in a more skilled way.
Objective:
To; evaluate the efficacy of a modified mindfulness program in reducing stress and anxiety symptoms in medicine and dentistry undergraduate students.
Methods:
This was a single blinded, randomized, clinical trial. Students from the aforementioned courses enrolled in the 1st to the 8th semesters of a higher education institution, answered Lipp’s Inventory of Stress symptoms for Adults (ISSL) (n=418) and the State-Trace Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (n=369). Those who showed a positive score for symptoms of stress and/or anxiety and accepted to take part in the intervention (n=59), were randomized into one of the two groups - mindfulness (a 2-week modified program), or control. After the intervention, the students were asked to answer the STAI and ISSL tools once again.
Results:
The global prevalence of stress and anxiety symptoms were 67% (n=280) and 76.4% (n=282), respectively. At the end of the second week, symptoms of stress and anxiety decreased 30.8% and 22.2%, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the mindfulness and control groups (p>0.05).
Conclusion:
Symptoms of stress and anxiety are highly prevalent among the studied population. Among medicine and dentistry undergraduate students in this higher education institution, a shortened mindfulness program was unable to reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety in a statistically significant way when compared to a control group.
Keywords : Psychological Stress; Anxiety; Mindfulness.
