An interventional study of Three-Minute Breathing Space Meditation and Neutral Audio Attention-Control Activity in Stress, Anxiety and Depression, sponsored by ZIRUI LIU. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Malaysia. Open to participants aged 20 Years to 45 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-02.
Sponsored by ZIRUI LIU · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Postgraduate students often experience psychological distress linked to academic demands, deadlines, research uncertainty, and financial or social pressures, and international students may face additional adjustment challenges. This study tests whether a brief, low-burden mindfulness practice - a three-minute Breathing Space Meditation (BSM) session, done four days a week for 8 weeks - can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression in postgraduate students at Universiti Putra Malaysia, compared with an active control activity that is matched in format and contact time but does not involve mindfulness training. Participants are randomly assigned to one of the two groups and are grouped by whether they are local or international students. The study also looks at whether the intervention affects stress hormone (cortisol) levels, a marker of inflammation (C-reactive protein), and a brain-wave measure linked to mood, and it collects brief daily check-ins on mood, stress, sleep, and academic pressures over the 8 weeks.
This is a single-centre, stratified, parallel-group randomized controlled trial using a 2×2×3 mixed factorial design. Intervention condition (Breathing Space Meditation versus an active attention-control activity) and student status (international versus local) are between-participant factors, and assessment time (baseline, week 4, week 8) is a within-participant factor, with 1:1 allocation within each student-status stratum. Participants cannot be blinded to which activity they are assigned, but outcome assessment, EEG processing, and statistical analysis will be conducted using coded data by personnel blinded to allocation where feasible. In addition to the formal assessments at baseline, week 4, and week 8, participants complete a brief daily questionnaire (under 3 minutes) capturing state stress, anxiety, low mood, coping confidence, academic stressors, sleep, and same-day intervention completion; these daily measures are analyzed exploratorily using multilevel time-series methods and are not treated as clinical (DASS-21) scores. Confirmatory analyses follow the intention-to-treat principle, with a per-protocol analysis prespecified as a sensitivity analysis.
8,577 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,720 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 81 across 7,063 interventional studies indexed under Depression.
Browse Depression studies →This is the only study on the registry with ZIRUI LIU as lead sponsor.
Compared within Depression, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Anxiety Disorders. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
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:
Participants receive a standardized three-minute guided Breathing Space Meditation (BSM) session, four days per week for 8 weeks
Behavioral: Three-Minute Breathing Space Meditation
Participants receive a neutral audio activity matched to the BSM condition in delivery mode, contact, session length, and frequency; this is not a waitlist control.
Behavioral: Neutral Audio Attention-Control Activity
A standardized three-minute guided meditation exercise consisting of three steps: (1) becoming aware of present-moment thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, (2) redirecting attention to the breath, and (3) expanding awareness to the body as a whole. Delivered four days per week for 8 weeks.
A neutral audio listening activity matched to the BSM intervention in delivery mode, contact time, session length, and frequency (three minutes, four days per week for 8 weeks), containing no meditation, relaxation, or mindfulness instructions.
Change in DASS-21 Anxiety Subscale Score
The Anxiety subscale of the DASS-21 will be used to assess physiological arousal and subjective anxiety symptoms over the past week. Scores range from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety severity.
Time frame: Baseline and Week 8
Change in DASS-21 Stress Subscale Score
The Stress subscale of the DASS-21 will be used to assess perceived stress over the past week. Scores range from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating greater stress severity.
Time frame: Baseline and Week 8
Change in DASS-21 Depression Subscale Score
The Depression subscale of the DASS-21 will be used to assess dysphoria, hopelessness, and low positive affect over the past week. Scores range from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating greater depression severity.
Time frame: Baseline and Week 8
Change in Serum Cortisol
Serum cortisol will be measured via venous blood sampling as a biomarker of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and physiological stress response.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, and Week 8
Change in C-Reactive Protein
High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) will be measured via venous blood sampling as a peripheral biomarker of systemic inflammation.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, and Week 8
Change in Frontal Alpha Asymmetry
Resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) will be recorded to derive frontal alpha asymmetry, an index of relative left versus right frontal cortical activation associated with approach/withdrawal-related emotional processing.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 4, and Week 8
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Nov 2026; primary completion for Mar 2027, 4 months later.
Of 3,468 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Depression, half reached primary completion within 21 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 41. This study's planned 4 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 3,566 studies reached it within 21 months; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 41.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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