Home-Based Mindfulness Meditation and Ear Nerve Stimulation for Older Adults Managing Chronic Low Back Pain and Depression

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating the effects of home-based mindfulness-based meditation MBM and transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation taVNS on managing pain and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older adults with chronic low back pain and depressive symptoms. This randomized controlled trial also investigates how these interventions affect the brain-gut axis in this population. Participants are assigned to one of two groups one group practices MBM daily for 20 minutes, five days a week, over eight weeks. The other group receives a single daily session, five days a week, consisting of 20 minutes of taVNS immediately followed by 20 minutes of MBM, totaling about 40 minutes per session over the same eight-week period. Throughout the study, participants undergo assessments at the start, two weeks, and eight weeks to measure changes in pain intensity, pain interference, depressive symptoms, pain self-efficacy, sensory testing results, pain modulation, co-occurring symptoms, brain responses to pain, and gut microbiota diversity. The study includes questionnaires, quantitative sensory testing, and microbiota analysis to monitor these outcomes and understand the intervention effects.

MBM and taVNS for Low Back Pain and Depressive Symptoms