Trial reportPsychotherapy and psychosomatics2022
Four-Week Mentalizing Imagery Therapy for Family Dementia Caregivers: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Neural Circuit Changes.
Trial report in Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of family carers' experience of compassion when caring for older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Pooled it
- The medial prefrontal cortex as a proposed regulatory structure in the relationship between anxiety and perceived social support: a review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of the mHealth Supportive Care Program for Family Caregivers of Individuals With Dementia and Diabetes: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Trial
- Brief mentalizing imagery therapy reduces stress and enhances positive psychological traits in family dementia caregivers: mediation by mindfulness.Aging & mental health · 2025Trial
- A Lived Experience of Mindfulness-Based Mentalizing Training Program for Parents (MBMP). A Phenomenological Study.Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2026Article
- The Impact of Dementia Caregiving on the Health of the Spousal Caregiver.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- Mapping the evidence of self-compassion in caregiver wellbeing for caregivers of persons with neurodegenerative disease: A scoping review.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Early Childhood Adversity Predicts Risk of Family Caregiver Suicidal Ideation:Roles of Neuroticism and Self-Compassion.Research square · 2024Article
- Mentalising imagery therapy for family dementia caregivers: protocol for a scoping review.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Family dementia caregivers with suicidal ideation improve with mentalizing imagery therapy: Results from a pilot study.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2024Article
- What works to support carers of older people and older carers? an international evidence map of interventions and outcomes.BMC geriatrics · 2024Review
- Say farewell to bland regression reporting: Three forest plot variations for visualizing linear models.PloS one · 2024Article
- Challenges, rewards, and lessons learned from family and community caregivers of individuals with serious mental illness and cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2023Article
- Initial evidence regarding the neurobiological basis of psychological symptoms in dementia caregivers.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Virtual mentalizing imagery therapy for Spanish language Latino family dementia caregivers: A feasibility and acceptability study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Mentalizing imagery therapy to augment skills training for dementia caregivers: Protocol for a randomized, controlled trial of a mobile application and digital phenotyping.Contemporary clinical trials · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionFamily caregivers of patients with dementia suffer a high burden of depression and reduced positive emotions. Mentalizing imagery therapy (MIT) provides mindfulness and guided imagery skills training to improve balanced mentalizing and emotion regulation.
objectiveOur aims were to test the hypotheses that MIT for family caregivers would reduce depression symptoms and improve positive psychological traits more than a support group (SG), and would increase dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) connectivity and reduce subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) connectivity.
methodsForty-six caregivers participated in a randomized controlled trial comparing a 4-week MIT group (n = 24) versus an SG (n = 22). Resting state neuroimaging was obtained at baseline and post-group in 28 caregivers, and questionnaires completed by all participants. The primary outcome was change in depression; secondary measures included anxiety, mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being. Brain networks with participation of DLPFC and sgACC were identified. Connectivity strengths of DLPFC and sgACC with respective networks were determined with dual regression. DLPFC connectivity was correlated with mindfulness and depression outcomes.
resultsMIT significantly outperformed SG in improving depression, anxiety, mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being, with moderate to large effect sizes. Relative to SG, participants in MIT showed significant increases in DLPFC connectivity - exactly replicating pilot study results - but no change in sgACC. DLPFC connectivity change correlated positively with mindfulness and negatively with depression change.
conclusionsIn this trial, MIT was superior to SG for reducing depression and anxiety symptoms and improving positive psychological traits. Neuroimaging results suggested that strengthening DLPFC connectivity with an emotion regulation network might be mechanistically related to MIT effects.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.