Biopsychosocial effects of mindfulness intervention on older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A review

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundFueled by the repeated failures of pharmaceutical compounds in clinical trials, the dementia field has recently moved towards validating preventive intervention of behavioral nature, such as mindfulness practice, to prevent and delay cognitive impairment. Despite the known cognitive benefits of mindfulness in healthy individuals, the effects on delaying cognitive decline in older adults with MCI (mild cognitive impairment) are largely unknown.MethodWe conducted a literature review on randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies to critically appraise the bio‐psycho‐social effect of mindfulness intervention on older adults aged ≥60 years old with MCI.ResultA myriad of mindfulness studies have been conducted in Western countries. A total of five RCTs examining subjects with MCI were identified. Four studies showed improved neurocognitive assessments, three studies demonstrated improved neuroimaging measures, one study showed improved bio‐fluid markers and one study showed improved psychosocial well‐being. Most studies had small sample size (N20) and short duration of follow‐up (≤8 weeks), often with inadequate methodological rigor and mostly speculative post‐hoc interpretations.ConclusionThe MCI population is severely understudied in the field of mindfulness intervention. Given the overall positive preliminary findings, it is time to move towards conducting large scale RCT of high‐quality, comparing the effects of mindfulness between Western and Eastern societies. A number of critical future directions include conducting high‐quality RCTs with more standardized mindfulness interventions, examining dose‐response relationship, longer follow‐up period to examine sustainability, differentiation of the specific effects of mindfulness, and the use of objective measures, particularly bio‐fluid markers.