Trial Report Awe reduces depressive symptoms and improves well-being in a randomized-controlled clinical trial, 2025, Lopez et al

rvallee

rvallee

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Awe reduces depressive symptoms and improves well-being in a randomized-controlled clinical trial
www.nature.com

Awe reduces depressive symptoms and improves well-being in a randomized-controlled clinical trial - Scientific Reports

Emerging evidence suggests that experiences of awe benefit health and well-being. The present investigation examined the efficacy of an awe intervention to improve the psychological health—stress, anxiety, depression, and well-being—of patients living with long COVID. The awe intervention, a...
www.nature.com www.nature.com

Emerging evidence suggests that experiences of awe benefit health and well-being. The present investigation examined the efficacy of an awe intervention to improve the psychological health—stress, anxiety, depression, and well-being—of patients living with long COVID. The awe intervention, a Randomized-controlled Clinical Trial, was delivered in synchronous online sessions to patients, across the United States (in April 2023), who met the criteria for long COVID. Results revealed significant improvements in psychological health for those in the awe intervention (N = 30), compared to the control group (N = 38): including decreased stress, decreased depression symptoms, and increased well-being. There were no significant differences between groups in anxiety symptoms. Effect sizes ranged from medium to large (d = 0.78–0.96), demonstrating the robustness of these findings. This work is the first to document that awe can have salutary effects on psychological health, such as reducing symptoms of depression. These findings suggest that a brief awe intervention can improve psychological health in people dealing with chronic stress and physical ailments, as in the case of long COVID.
 
:(:banghead::confused:

What is there even to say here? I'll say only this:
Emerging evidence suggests that experiences of awe benefit health and well-being
Click to expand...
This is ridiculous. Plain and simple ridiculous. It completely ignores 1) reality, 2) human nature, 3) literally all of reality. It's like some program of mandatory laughter from the 1950s.

The pros of simply shutting down this entire discipline vastly outweigh the cons of losing what little usefulness it actually provides. Erasing everything, even in people's brains, whatever the damage done, would probably still work out on balance. They even have no idea how much they are hurting their own credibility with this, it's maddening. How are we supposed to take health care professionals seriously when they don't shut bullshit this down with a giant canon?
 
Last edited:
Open label, waitlist control, and they were told how good finding awe is going to be for them.

The authors say that awe is experienced when encountering something extraordinary. Yet this was focused on finding awe in your everyday life.

Nature, what are you doing by publishing this garbage?
 
We are living in an age of utter delusion parading around as science. This is as nonsensical as any belief in wellness/antivax circles. And it sounds like it uses the PACE trick of telling the patients how effective it is, which tells us everything we need to know.

I sometimes feel like the resistance to acknowledging ME/CFS is because it is the load bearing wall in a very flimsy house of cards built mostly from this sort of obvious nonsense.

Stuff like this seems so caring on the surface but it serves to reinforce stigmatising ideas about both chronic and mental illness. It doesn't matter how nicely someone tells you to get on your bike when you can't do it.
 
On the one hand I do agree that experiencing awe and wonder has an impact on how we feel about things. I do agree that they are an important part of the human experience. And saying that is fine. Nice things are nice. The world is full of wonder.

On the other hand I’m not sure what that’s got to do with treatments for things like depression let alone long covid. From my experiences not being able to experience awe or wonder (or various other things) is very much part of depression.
 
Participants were told that they would either start immediately or more than four weeks later. The intervention group started immediately. The control group started around a month later. So, the researchers used the BPS strategy of treating the controls, making followup control vs intervention comparisons impossible.

The intervention ran for 4 weeks, consisting of a one hour online lecture per week, assessment at the end of those weeks. The control group probably didn't realise that they were the control
Supplemental information said:
Participants were blinded to their group assignment.
Click to expand...
Around half of the controls dropped out while waiting for the month. But, those who remained presumably wanted the treatment, creating an incentive to report that they had not got any better.


Although there was substantial attrition, there were no significant differences between those that dropped out and those that completed the intervention.
Click to expand...
60 people were allocated to the intervention. Only 30 completed it.


Ok, someone has to do it. This study is AWE-full.
 
They planned to recruit 400 participants. Only 68 completed the trial.

Their clinicaltrials.gov page also claims that the participants would be blinded.

They had it listed as «microdosing mindfulness» and there is no mention of «awe».

They were supposed to do follow up for a year for all outcomes. Seems like they ditched everything past one month.

There is no mention of a plan for their analysis.

ClinicalTrials.gov

clinicaltrials.gov clinicaltrials.gov
 
Utsikt said:
They planned to recruit 400 participants. Only 68 completed the trial.

Their clinicaltrials.gov page also claims that the participants would be blinded.

They had it listed as «microdosing mindfulness» and there is no mention of «awe».

They were supposed to do follow up for a year for all outcomes. Seems like they ditched everything past one month.

There is no mention of a plan for their analysis.

ClinicalTrials.gov

clinicaltrials.gov clinicaltrials.gov
Click to expand...

Am I correct in thinking nature scientific reports is more prestigious than nature communications?

Either way it's shocking this got published anywhere.
 

Awe intervention​

The intervention component consisted of teaching participants a simple three-step process of how to find awe in the ordinary: by paying attention to the environment in daily life, slowing down, and expanding on those awe moments. Participants were given the following instructions:

How to access moments of AWE in the ordinary

Attention: full and undivided attention on things you appreciate, value, or find amazing.

Wait: slow down, pause.

Exhale + Expand: amplify whatever sensations you are experiencing.

Participants were asked to practice finding awe at least three times a day. They were also reminded that finding awe does not require extraordinary events and can be practiced in brief moments throughout the day—less than 30 seconds, three times a day.
Click to expand...
 
Attention: full and undivided attention on things you appreciate, value, or find amazing.
I gave this paper my full undivided attention. I find it amazing that this trial was funded and published.

Wait: slow down, pause.
I went away and had breakfast, gave my undivided attention to my toast. Then, thought about this paper a bit more.

Exhale + Expand: amplify whatever sensations you are experiencing.
Now I'm back. Exhaling.
Disappointment. Frustration. Exasperation.
Yes, pretty much that.

Has my well-being improved? Nope.
 
My usual awe is "Aw, the fence lizards are so cute" in my oak forest.

If I could catch a ride on a Star Trek transporter to an major exhibit in New York or Paris for a quiet, private viewing....Awestruck might be too energizing. (Catered delicacies and drink to complement the art of course.)

and then I'd need a recovery awe--smoking opium to calmly drift away in color.
 
Yann04 said:
I know prestigious journals don’t mean much. But this load of methodological satire getting published in nature is a bit of a wow moment.
Click to expand...
This is Scientific Reports, not Nature proper and yes, peer review quality is mixed across and even within journals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom