An interventional study of Mindful Self-Compassion in Anxiety Disorders, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder, sponsored by Georgetown University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-05.
Sponsored by Georgetown University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The study will compare the delivery of an 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion training, in-person against video-conference, on anxiety and depression symptom severity in patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder) or major depressive disorder or dysthymia.
Anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder, and depressive disorders result in significant distress, impairment in social and occupational functioning and increased risk for suicide. While there are medication and psychotherapy treatment options, they can sometimes be difficult to access and may be ineffective for a proportion of the population. Also, many patients are reluctant to take psychiatric medication, and many prefer to avoid psychiatric care altogether due to stigma or distrust of medical care settings such as a psychiatry clinic. Mindfulness meditation training can be provided outside of a medical care setting and may be more acceptable and feasible for some patients.
One way that mindfulness meditation may provide unique benefits for anxiety and depression is through decreasing self-judgment and increasing self-compassion. Research has shown that people with anxiety disorders, for example, have lower levels of self-compassion than people without anxiety. This is consistent with theories about the development and phenomenology of anxiety disorders, which are characterized as having high levels of self-criticism. Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to improve self-compassion and self-acceptance.
In this study, patients with anxiety disorders or depression will be randomized to either an in-person 8-week class called Mindful Self-Compassion training or a video-conference 8-week class called Mindful Self-Compassion.
7,201 studies on the registry are indexed under Anxiety Disorders; 1,682 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 80 is close to the median of 80 across 6,057 interventional studies indexed under Anxiety Disorders.
Browse Anxiety Disorders studies →Georgetown University is the lead sponsor of 292 studies on the registry; 40 are open to participants now.
Of its 28 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 20 (71%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is a weekly class given for 8 weeks. The individual classes last about 2 hours each. The class is provided in a group setting.
Behavioral: Mindful Self-Compassion
Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is a weekly class given for 8 weeks. The individual classes last about 2 hours each. The class is provided in a video-conference group setting.
Behavioral: Mindful Self-Compassion
The course teaching mindfulness meditation skills relevant to cultivating self-compassion.
Self-Critical Rumination Scale (SCRS)
10-item questionnaire that measures ruminative processes related to self-critical thoughts.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Hospital Anxiety and Disease Scale (HADS)
Self-report questionnaire of anxiety and depression symptoms, 14 items using 4-point likert scale
Time frame: 8 weeks
PROMIS Depression Short Form
8-item questionnaire that assesses the pure domain of depression in individuals aged 18 and older.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form
18-item self-report measure that has established validity and is widely used for assessing emotion regulation style in adults
Time frame: 8 weeks
Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ)
A patient-report measure that is used to understand patients' anxiety, and worry.
Time frame: 8 weeks
PROMIS Anxiety Short Form
8 items to assess self-reported fear (fearfulness, panic), anxious misery (worry, dread), hyperarousal (tension, nervousness, restlessness), and somatic symptoms related to arousal (racing heart, dizziness).
Time frame: 8 weeks
PROMIS Sleep-Anxiety measure
13 items from the PROMIS Sleep Disturbance battery, that relate specifically to sleep disturbance resulting from worry, anxiety, or stress.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)
A questionnaire widely used to measure social anxiety through situation-based questions that also distinguishes between fear and avoidance ratings.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Self-Compassion Scale (SCS)
26-item self-report instrument that uses a 5-point Likert scale for each item to assess compassion and kindness towards oneself, partially through seeing one's experiences as not unique and specific to the individual, but part of a larger human experience.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Fear of Compassion
A questionnaire that is the sum of three subscales designed to assess individuals: Compassion for the self-comprised; compassion from others comprised; and compassion for others comprised. We will use the Compassion for Self subscale.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Guilt and Shame Questionnaire (GSQ)
8-item survey and is currently the most reliable, valid, and quick-to-complete shame scale for use in therapy outcome studies.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Plan to share: No — Individual-level participant data collected will not be made available to the general public due to conditions of ethical approval regarding confidentiality.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Jun 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2026, 18 months after the start.
Of 3,836 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Anxiety Disorders, half reached primary completion within 12 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 28. This study's planned 18 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 3,938 studies reached it within 12 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 28.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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