Ignacio Ibáñez Fernández

Estimulación basada en mindfulness en la enfermedad de Alzheimer avanzada: ensayo clínico piloto comparativo de equivalencia

INTRODUCTION A longitudinal study was conducted in order to analyze the feasibility, safety, and effects of the practice of mindfulness, relaxation and cognitive stimulation on the evolution of Alzheimers disease, with the aim of testing the equivalence of these interventions. MATERIAL AND METHODS There were a total of 168 participants with probable Alzheimers disease (AD) treated with donepezil. In the present article, the 21 participants with advanced AD who completed a follow-up period of 24 months are presented. The participants were grouped into three experimental groups (mindfulness, relaxation, and cognitive stimulation) and one control group. Each group carried out three weekly sessions with bi-annual follow-up measurements (cognition: CAMCOG and MMSE; functionality: RDRS; psychopathology: NPI). Non-parametric analyses were performed. RESULTS The cognitive function and functionality scores showed no significant differences between the groups. However, the scores in cognitive function of the mindfulness group and the cognitive stimulation group did not decrease in an intra-group analysis. In NPI, there were significant differences between the mindfulness group and the control group by the end of the study (P<.017). CONCLUSION The data showed that the treatment with donepezil in combination with mindfulness or cognitive stimulation presented a better clinical evolution than the pharmacological treatment alone or combined with relaxation. These data suggest that these therapeutic alternatives should be investigated further, and that the non-pharmacological treatments should be recommended in clinical practice in order to control the evolution of AD in the long term. In order to confirm these findings, a larger study is necessary.

YOGA and self-regulation in management of essential arterial hypertension and associated emotional symptomatology: A randomized controlled trial

• The aim is to deepen in the mechanisms that underlie a positive effect of yoga on essential arterial hypertension and on related emotional symptomatology.

Zung scale factor invariance in male coronary patients and healthy people.

The objective of this study was, firstly, to determine the factor structure and factor invariance of the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS) and, secondly, to justify its use in coronary patients (CPs) and healthy people (HP). Two comparable samples of males were studied: 217 CPs and 191 HP. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) for ordinal data were carried out with Mplus. Two models obtained from all participants in this study and another two, the model of Shafer (2006) from a meta-analysis and that of Barefoot et al. (2000) with CPs, were analyzed in CFA. A two-factor structure was supported by EFA in both samples, but none of the models showed adequate goodness-of-fit for the CPs and the HP in CFA. Only the two and three-factor models obtained from the combined sample of CPs and HP showed adequate goodness-of-fit for HP. The ZSDS showed good reliability, replicated the prevalence of depressive symptoms found in other studies and was able to distinguish between CPs and HP. We conclude that the best fit is obtained from the two-factor solution in HP, that the factor structure of the ZSDS is not invariant and is linked to positively and negatively worded items.