Exploring the effectiveness of a modified comprehensive mind-body intervention for medical and psychologic symptom relief.

Background: Chronic illnesses are a major current health concern associated with elevated stress and increased health care costs.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the preliminary effectiveness of a modified, multimodal 8 week mind-body intervention on reducing physical and psychological symptoms in patients with chronic physical, mental and comorbid health issues.

Methods: Two hundred and twenty six adults enrolled in a mind-body group program and completed pre and post program assessments (63% completer rate), including the Medical Symptoms Checklist (MSCL), Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II), and Symptom Checklist 90R (SCL-90R).

Results: Significant improvement was found on 9 of 23 medical symptoms (p < .002), all health promoting lifestyle behaviors (p < .001), and all mental health symptoms (p < .001).

Conclusions: These results indicate that a multimodal mind-body intervention might be useful as a complementary or adjunct therapy for treatment of chronic medical symptoms. Future research is needed to test the intervention using a randomized controlled trial.