From Body to Mind and Spirit: Qigong Exercise for Bereaved Persons with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-Like Illness

Abstract

Bereavement may bring negative impacts on the mind, body, and spiritual well-being of grieving persons. Some bereaved persons with chronic fatigue syndrome- (CFS-) illness experience a dual burden of distress. This study investigated the effects of bereavement on CFS-like illness by comparing bereaved and nonbereaved participants. It also adopted a random group design to investigate the effectiveness of Qigong on improving the well-being of bereaved participants. The Qigong intervention comprised 10 group sessions delivered twice a week for 5 weeks and home-practice for at least three times a week lasting 15–30 minutes each. The participants’ fatigue, anxiety, and depression, quality of life (QoL), and spiritual well-being were measured at baseline and 3 months after treatment. The bereaved participants experienced significantly greater mental fatigue (16.09 versus 14.44,p=0.017) and lower physical QoL (34.02 versus 37.17,p=0.011) than their nonbereaved counterparts. After 3 months, the mental fatigue (−8 versus −4,p=0.010) and physical fatigue (−10 versus −5,p=0.007) experienced by intervention group had declined significantly, and improvements on their spirituality (14 versus −2,p=0.013) and psychological QoL (8.91 versus 0.69,p=0.002) scores exceeded those of the control group.