Kent State University Awarded Grant

INTRO: Kent State University was awarded some big money from the National Institutes of Health. TV2 reporter Alaina Altieri has the story on what the grant is all about.

Kent State University received a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund a psychology study called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for High Blood Pressure, or “The Serenity Study.” One of the co-investigators of the “serenity study,” Associate Professor, Joel Hughes, was pleased to receive the grant.

“Each site we’ll recruit patients and put them through this protocol and we’ll be measuring what happens to people’s blood pressure and their heart rate and other kinds of physiological responses at different points of the treatment. There will be more than one treatment, there will be a meditation treatment and we are going to compare that for the time with a stress management education program and we are going to compare that with people who are weighed. It’s called a weight list control, where there is no treatment right away but late you get treatment.”

Hughes also said the money will go towards the recruit participants and most of the money will go towards the people who do the work for the study.

Congressman Tim Ryan was notified of the grant award to Kent State and said he is an advocate and proponent of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

Hughes said the study will take around five years to complete and is hopeful for results.

TAG: Hughes encourages anyone interested in the study to contact him.