Effect of a 5-Minute Mindfulness-of-Gratitude Practice on Suffering and Spiritual Well-Being in Palliative Care...

BackgroundSuffering in advanced illness is multidimensional and often includes existential and spiritual distress. Brief interventions that can be tolerated at the bedside may be useful in palliative care, but ultra-brief gratitude-focused mindfulness has not been formally evaluated in this setting.ObjectiveTo determine whether a single 5-minute mindfulness-of-gratitude practice reduces suffering and improves spiritual well-being among palliative care inpatients compared with attention-matched supportive listening.MethodsIn this parallel-group, open-label randomized controlled study, adult palliative care inpatients with an Overall Suffering Score ≥4/10 were randomized 1:1 to a scripted 5-minute mindfulness-of-gratitude practice or a 5-minute supportive-listening conversation, both delivered by the same trained clinician. Overall suffering, total suffering, and spiritual well-being measured using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp12) were assessed immediately before and after the session.ResultsForty patients were randomized, with 20 in each arm, and all completed the protocol. Compared with supportive listening, the mindfulness-of-gratitude arm showed greater reductions in overall suffering (median change -2.5 vs -1.0; P < 0.001) and total suffering (-2.0 vs -1.0; P = 0.037), and greater improvement in FACIT-Sp12 score (+2.0 vs 0.0; P = 0.001). No adverse events were reported.ConclusionsA single 5-minute mindfulness-of-gratitude practice produced immediate reductions in suffering and improvements in spiritual well-being. This brief, low-risk intervention may be a practical adjunct to routine inpatient palliative care, although durability and generalizability require further study.