O impacto das intervenções de meditação breve e extremamente breve nas taxas de sucesso de Técnicas de Reprodução Assistida: um estudo controlado randomizado

Abstract

Introduction: Pregnancy success rates with assisted reproductive technology (ART) have steadily improved. The effect of non-pharmacological interventions such as meditation as adjunctive therapies on the outcomes of ART cycles has been researched with promising results. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is much doubt about the effects of brief and extremely brief meditation on ART success rates. Therefore, an extremely brief facilitatorguided meditation and an audio-guided, self-paced short meditation were studied. Objectives: To investigate the effect of extremely brief meditation (EBMI) or brief mindfulness interventions (Brief MI) on pregnancy rate in women undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Method: This is a prospective three arms randomized, controlled study. Interventions were performed in the waiting period between embryo transfer and the β-hCG pregnancy test. The sample size was calculated using Pearson's chi-square based on a power of 80%, effect size of 0.4 and a confidence level of 95%. Variables related to the success of ART included in the analysis consisted of age in years, number of embryos/blastocysts transferred, number of embryos/blastocysts with excellent or very good quality, number of in vitro fertilization cycles, age range, and whether the embryo was transferred or blastocyst. Chi-square test (χ2) and ANOVA compared variable values between intervention and control groups. Univariate Logistic Regression Analysis evaluated whether each variable related to ART success influenced or not the response of the outcome variable “pregnancy”. Multiple Logistic Regression Analysis assessed if these variables could influence jointly the outcome of pregnancy. Results: A total of 68 women aged 37.5+4.3y were included (EBMI, n=24; Brief MI, n=22 and CG, n=22) were. Pearson's Chi-square test and Student's t test for independent samples showed that there were no significant differences (p<0.05) between the intervention groups and control group. Both EBMI and BMI had no significant effect on pregnancy rate in women undergoing ART. Conclusion: The use of brief or extremely brief meditation did not demonstrate significant differences in the pregnancy rate between the intervention and control groups in women undergoing treatment with Assisted Reproductive Techniques. The results of the effects of meditation on the pregnancy rate of women on ART are inconclusive in the literature. Larger sample randomized controlled trials comparing both brief and extremely brief meditation interventions to a control group are needed to confirm the findings of this study.