Adding mindfulness or exercise did not clearly improve primary outcomes after stroke
An online rehabilitation trial found no significant added cognitive or emotional benefit, although the exercise group gained more leg strength.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
In this trial, adding mindfulness or exercise to computerized cognitive training did not produce statistically significant extra improvements in the primary cognitive and mental health measures. Exercise did improve a secondary leg-strength outcome. This abstract-based result applies to participants with mostly mild chronic stroke deficits and does not prove the approaches are equivalent.
Participants mostly had mild deficits. The abstract provides no effect estimates or confidence intervals for the primary comparisons, limiting assessment of how precisely possible additional benefits were ruled out.
What researchers found
Primary cognitive and mental health outcomes
After 12 weeks, no statistically significant differences were found between mindfulness plus training, exercise plus training, and training alone.
What participants received
All interventions were delivered online at home. Each group received computerized cognitive training, allowing the study to examine whether adding mindfulness or exercise improved outcomes beyond that shared component of rehabilitation.
Secondary findings need distinction
Exercise produced greater leg-strength gains. Within the adherent, per-protocol sample of the mindfulness-plus-cognitive-training group, a mediation analysis linked mindfulness improvements to emotional changes. This treatment-specific finding did not overturn the null primary comparisons.
The original publication
Effects of mindfulness and exercise on cognition and emotion in adults with mild deficits in the chronic post-stroke phase: A randomized controlled trial.
Bermudo-Gallaguet A, Ariza M, Agudelo D et al.
Ann Phys Rehabil Med · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40845631
- Record checked
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