# Mindfulness meditation training for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

> **NIH NIH R01** · CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $607,923

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Mindfulness-Based Intervention (MBI) training programs have been shown to reduce stress and improve a
broad range of stress-related disease outcomes in initial randomized controlled trials (RCTs). For example,
there is initial evidence from small RCTs that MBIs reduce symptoms in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
patients. Yet we know little about the underlying active treatment mechanisms of mindfulness training.
Guided by a theoretical and conceptual model of the active treatment elements of MBIs, called Monitor and
Acceptance Theory (MAT), we recently showed in two published dismantling MBI RCTs that acceptance
skills training is critical for driving stress reduction effects in healthy stressed community adults. Specifically,
standard MBI programs with attention monitoring and acceptance skills training were superior in reducing
stress relative to parallel MBI programs that did not include acceptance skills training (or to control groups) at
post-treatment. We observed consistent stress reduction effects across intervention delivery approaches in
these two dismantling trials, using either a 2-week remote smartphone MBI or with an 8-week group-based
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) MBI treatment approach. Here we propose the first
translational trial of this mechanistic account, examining whether acceptance skills training drives stress
resilience and improved symptom outcomes in IBS patients. In the largest and most well-controlled RCT of
MBI training in IBS to-date (N=325), we will evaluate whether a smartphone MBI program (with attention
monitoring and acceptance skills training; Monitor+Accept, MA-MBI) reduces daily life stress and IBS
symptoms at post-treatment and two-month follow-up, relative to a matched MBI program with acceptance
skills training removed (training in attention monitoring skills only; Monitor Only, MO-MBI) or to an active
stress management training control group (Coping Control, CC). Participants will not only provide clinician
and patient assessed measures of IBS symptoms at the three time points, but they will also provide sensitive
experience sampling assessments (using Ecological Momentary Assessment) of their stress and symptoms
in daily life at each time point. Finally, as an exploratory aim, participants will provide stool samples at
baseline and post-intervention to provide the first ever test of whether MBIs can alter the gut microbiome in
IBS. Guided by a conceptual model, the proposed study will experimentally evaluate whether acceptance
skills training is a key ingredient for stress reduction and health benefits in IBS patients, and will provide an
important mechanistically-focused evaluation of the active treatment elements of MBIs for at risk stressed
patient populations. We believe that this trial not only can help identify a new accessible and scalable
evidence-based treatment for IBS patients, but the mechanistic focus will also help the field advance more
effective and ef...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10833558
- **Project number:** 5R01DK128114-04
- **Recipient organization:** CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** John David Creswell
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $607,923
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-05-04 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10833558

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10833558, Mindfulness meditation training for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (5R01DK128114-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10833558. Licensed CC0.

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