The Mindfulness Podcast with Dr. David Black

I am joined by Chris Krägeloh, PhD, a Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His research interests include outcome measurement in mental health, mindfulness, and investigating psychosocial factors in robotics. He has authored more than 130 articles in international journals, was lead author of a mindfulness research book (Mindfulness-Based Intervention Research: Characteristics, Approaches, and Developments), co-editor of two major reference works on assessment (Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research and International Handbook of Behavioral Health Assessment), and co-editor and co-author of several other books on research methods and well-being. He is the joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mindfulness. We discuss the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in research publishing and the benefits and challenges posed by this growing technology.

I am joined by Dr. Rita Sleimen-Malkoun, P.T., Ph.D., who is an assistant professor at Aix-Marseille University (AMU) in Marseille, France. She is affiliated with the Faculty of Sports Sciences and the Institute of Movement Science Etienne-Jules Marey. Dr. Sleimen-Malkoun's research focuses on understanding the interactions between cognition and motor control in various populations, and how factors like physical and mental training influence these interactions. Her work has applications in prevention, training, and rehabilitation. Over the past decade, she has dedicated a significant portion of her research to studying healthy aging, including its characteristics, mediators, and moderators. Recently, she has also been investigating the behavioral effects of mindfulness meditation. Currently, she is involved in the Active Aging Chair, supported by AMU and AG2R- La Mondiale, and is a partner in the Doctoral Translational Research Network in Motor Disorder Rehabilitation (TReND), funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Program. In our discussion, we explore her latest study, which examines the impact of a single session of mindfulness meditation on cognitive abilities using the Stroop task.

My guest Professor Phil Reed is University Chair in Psychology at Swansea University in Wales. Dr. Reed's research interests span a wide range of basic and applied topics, including learning and behaviour, schedules of reinforcement, autism, and  urogynaecological health. He has authored books, notably "Interventions for Autism: Evidence for Educational and Clinical Practice," published over 300 papers, and has been invited to present his work at numerous international conferences. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Learning and Motivation. He and his team have presented research on Women's Health at the National Assembly for Wales, receiving the 'Medal of the President of the Republic' of Italy in 2016 for their scientific contributions to society in this area. He has held appointments for the Departments of Health and Education, the Children in Wales Policy Council, and the EU Commission on the Digital Economy. He regularly contributes articles to Psychology Today. We discuss his new study testing the effect of mindfulness training on response to schedules of reinforcement.

Dr. Darren Dunning is a Scientist at the University of Cambridge's Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, and a Senior Research Adviser for the National Institute for Health and Care Research in the UK. His research focuses on mindfulness interventions for children and adolescents. In this interview, we discuss his recent BMJ network publication, which synthesizes research on mindfulness training for child and adolescent cognition and mental health. The results suggest that mindfulness training benefits anxious children but does not show significant improvement for various other conditions.

My guest Dr. Zev Schuman-Olivier is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion as well as the Center for Addiction Research at the Cambridge Health Alliance. He is a board-certified addiction psychiatrist. His research focuses on the treatment of addictive disorders with emphasis on outpatient maintenance therapy for opioid use disorder. We discuss his new proof of concept study that examines the potential benefit of trauma‐informed mindful recovery on comorbid pain, anxiety, and substance use during primary care buprenorphine treatment.

David Grüning, M.Sc., is a researcher at the Department of Psychology at Heidelberg University and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. He is also the lead scientist of one sec and Chair of the Science Board at Prosocial Design Network. His current research focuses on developing digital and app-based interventions to apply psychological mechanisms in online-environments. We discuss his recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences on reducing automatic smartphone consumption by nudging using the app One Sec.

My guest Dr. Elissa Kozlov is Assistant Professor and the Director of the Population Aging Concentration at the Rutgers School of Public Health. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and New Jersey. Her research investigates strategies to improve the mental health outcomes of older adults and adults with serious illness and their families. She is particularly interested in mHealth strategies to expand the reach of evidence-based mental health interventions. She received a KL2 award to investigate mHealth mindfulness therapy for caregivers of older adults with cognitive impairment. Currently, she is investigating dyadic mHealth mindfulness for older adults with serious illness and their caregivers with support from a Beeson K76 Career Development award from the National Institute on Aging.

My guest Dr. Iroise Dumontheil is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London. Her research focuses on the typical development of social cognition and cognitive control during adolescence. Her studies combine methods including functional and structural neuroimaging, cognitive and behavioural assessments, and genetics. She is interested in the impact of cognitive training, from computerized games to mindfulness meditation practice, on child and adolescent cognition, as well as the potential implications of neuroscience research for education. We discuss her brain imaging findings after eight weeks of mindfulness training in adolescents 12–14 years of age while they completed an n-back task with emotional face distractors and an attentional control task.

My guest Dr. Cortland Dahl is Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Health Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has studied and practiced meditation during his travels through Asia, and at a point in his life spent eight years living in a Tibetan refugee settlement in Nepal. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Tergar International that is a global network of meditation groups. He was lead content creator as Chief Contemplative Officer for the Healthy Minds app-based program. We discuss his role in developing the Healthy Minds app program and what it has to offer the general public.

My guest Dr. Julie Fritz is Distinguished Professor of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. She is also the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Health. She is a licensed Physical Therapist, and a fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association. Her research has focused on non-pharmacologic treatments for spinal pain, including clinical trials and health services research. She is leading projects funded by PCORI and the National Institutes of Health including those under the HEAL initiative addressing pain management and opioid use. She also leads a trial within the NIH-VA-DoD Pain Management Collaboratory investigating non-pharmacologic pain management in the Military Health System. We discuss her current trial that tests the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention that is integrated with physical therapy for rehabilitation after lumbar surgery.

My guest Dr. Elena Salmoirago-Blotcher, M.D., Ph.D. is a Senior Research Scientist in the Division of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Institute at the Miriam Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine. After a 20-year experience as a cardiologist in her native Italy, she launched a research career in behavioral cardiology. Her research program focuses on the role of psychosocial factors in the development of cardiovascular disease and on novel strategies targeting psycho-behavioral factors to promote cardiovascular health. She conducts research on stress (Takotsubo) cardiomyopathy as a model of the complex interactions between psychological factors, reproductive factors and cardiovascular physiology. She also studies the role of mind-body approaches in the promotion of physical activity and medication adherence. We discuss her new research project that is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIA) called Mind Your Heart-II.

In this episode, Dr. Black and Dr. Prakash discuss her research, including her motivations, dedication and the details of her research.

My guest is Dr. Maryanna Klatt, Ph.D.. She is Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Ohio State University. Her current research focus is on developing cost-effective programs in health care settings to reduce the burden of stress-related illnesses. We discuss The Ohio State University Center for Integrative Medicine, the Mindfulness in Motion (MIM) program as delivered in a health care system and for health care workers, and the undergraduate curriculum she developed at the university for undergraduate freshman and seniors to support their coping skills using a mindfulness program.

My guest today is Dr. Danella Hafeman, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a child psychiatrist and holds a PhD in Epidemiology. Her research focus is on youth at risk for bipolar disorder and testing intervention to prevent mood disorders. She studies the brain and behavioral features of bipolar disorder risk. She also performs clinical work as a psychiatrist in the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Services clinic. She has recently started a research project funded by the National Institutes of Health titled Neurobehavioral Targets of Mindfulness in Youth At Risk for Mood Disorders (NIMH R01MH127021). This will be a randomized controlled trial to test brain and behavioral effects of a mindfulness program adapted for youth at risk for mood disorders. A key therapeutic target of interest is unintentional mind-wandering in youth.

I continue a conversation as Part 3 with guest Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic in 1979. The program continues at the clinic, and now in clinics and community centers around the globe, 42 years later. Jon is the author of many well-known mindfulness meditation books, including Full Catastrophe Living, the classic Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) manual, which is published in 10 languages. We discuss a 50-year career in mindfulness research and teaching, research findings on MBSR for skin disorders, and mindfulness as conceptualized in the past, present and future.

My guest is Dr. Steve Cole, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine in the division of hematology-oncology at the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine. His research examines the association between social factors and the activity of the human genome. He has pioneered the use of functional genomics approaches in the social and behavioral sciences, including tests of stress reduction and mindfulness interventions on genomic activity. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and I have been lucky enough to collaborate with Dr. Cole on several research projects that examine genomic activity associated with participation in behavioral interventions.

My guest is Dr. Rebecca Crane, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Bangor University in the United Kingdom. There she directs the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice as a certified MBSR teacher as well as a lead teacher trainer for MBSR and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). Her research focuses on clarifying best standards for teaching mindfulness programs as well as implementing evidence-supported programs in the UK health service system. She authored the book "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Distinctive Features" in 2017, and recently co-edited "Essential Resources for Mindfulness Teachers in 2021. She is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

My guest is Dr. Tanuj Dada, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Head Physician of Glaucoma Services at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. He has authorship on over 300 research publications. And has written five textbooks on glaucoma diagnosis and surgery. He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Current Glaucoma Practice. He serves on the World Health Organization Development Group for glaucoma interventions. He has innovated on several techniques of Glaucoma surgery, and pioneered the research on mind-body medicine for glaucoma management. He has studied the impact of mindfulness training on intraocular pressure and stress hormones among patients with glaucoma.

My guest is Dr. Willem Kuyken, Ph.D., D.Clin.Psy., Professor of Medical Sciences and Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and a research clinical psychologist. He is Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. He researches interventions aimed at treating depression, specifically Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy or MBCT. He has published this work in top journals including The Lancet and JAMA network. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He co-authored a book in 2019 titled "Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology."

I speak with guest Natalia Morone, M.D., Physician and Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. Her research career focuses on drug free interventions to treat chronic low back pain. Her clinical trials show that meditation can reduce pain in older adults with chronic pain. Results from this work informed the American College of Physicians Guidelines to add meditation to the menu of treatments for chronic pain. Her research portfolio also extends into mindfulness delivered via electronic Health (eHealth) and telehealth. She is the Principal Investigator of the NCCIH-funded Optimizing Pain Treatment In Medical settings Using Mindfulness (OPTIMUM) pragmatic clinical trial, which we discuss.