Multi-site evaluation of a complementary, spiritually-based intervention for Veterans: The Mantram Repetition Program

• Veterans desire complementary approaches for emotional and physical well-being.
• Randomized trials support Mantram Repetition Program (MRP) for symptom management.
• Naturalistic study of MRP for Veterans compared two facilitator training methods.
• MRP showed significant health improvements with both facilitator training methods.
• Veterans reported high patient satisfaction with MRP.

BackgroundMental and physical symptoms affect Veterans' quality of life. Despite available conventional treatments, an increasing number of Veterans are seeking complementary approaches to symptom management. Research on the Mantram Repetition Program (MRP), a spiritually-based intervention, has shown significant improvements in psychological distress and spiritual well-being in randomized trials. However, these findings have not been replicated in real-world settings.MethodsIn this naturalistic study, we analyzed outcomes from 273 Veterans who participated in MRP at six sites and explored outcomes based on facilitator training methods. Measures included satisfaction and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization using the Brief Symptom Inventory-18; Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being questionnaire; and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale.ResultsThere were significant improvements in all outcomes (p's < .001) regardless of how facilitators were trained. Patient satisfaction was high.ConclusionThe MRP was disseminated successfully yielding improvements in psychological distress, spiritual well-being, and mindfulness.