The American journal of hospice & palliative care
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Jul 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialDistress Reduction for Palliative Care Patients and Families With 5-Minute Mindful Breathing: A Pilot Study.
A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 5-minute mindful breathing in distress reduction. Twenty palliative care patients and family caregivers with a distress score ≥4 measured by the Distress Thermometer were recruited and randomly assigned to mindful breathing or "listening" (being listened to). ⋯ A significantly larger reduction in the distress score was observed in the mindful breathing group (Mann-Whitney U test: U = 8.0, n1 = n2 = 10, mean rank1 = 6.30, mean rank2 = 14.70, z = -3.208, P = .001). The 5-minute mindful breathing could be useful in distress reduction in palliative care.