Addressing psychosomatic symptom distress with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in somatic symptom disorder: mediating effects of self-compassion and alexithymia.
Frontiers in Psychiatry January 1, 2024 Lianrong Xu, Jihong Shi, Chengwen Li
Among 116 somatic symptom disorder patients who completed a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy program, changes in both self-compassion and alexithymia mediated reductions in psychosomatic distress at six-month follow-up. A serial mediation analysis indicated that improvement in self-compassion and alleviation of alexithymia each had significant indirect effects on distress reduction. A post-hoc analysis suggested that reduced alexithymia improved psychosomatic distress, with increased self-compassion occurring as a subsequent outcome of that alleviation.