Health Psychology
July 6, 2023
Richa Gawande, Lydia Smith, Alexandra Comeau et al.
21 citations
An 8-week warm mindfulness training program for primary care patients with anxiety, depression, or stress-related disorders improved emotion regulation and helped patients initiate health behavior changes more than a low-dose mindfulness comparator. Emotion regulation difficulties decreased significantly at 8 weeks and at 24 weeks. 63% of those in the full program started their action plan within three weeks, compared to 38% in the comparator group.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 9, 2021
Marcelo Trombka, Timothy B. Creedon, Marcelo Demarzo et al.
14 citations
Portuguese-speaking immigrants in the Boston area who completed an 8-week mindfulness program adapted for their language and culture attended an average of 6.1 sessions and practiced 213.7 minutes per week. Nearly all participants rated the program as very good or excellent, would recommend it, and would participate again. Depression symptoms decreased substantially and anxiety symptoms decreased moderately, while emotional regulation improved. Half of those who completed surveys initiated a health behavior change. The program appears feasible, acceptable, and culturally appropriate for this underserved population, though larger controlled studies are needed.
Psychiatry Research
December 1, 2024
Zev Schuman-Olivier, Richa Gawande, Timothy B. Creedon et al.
10 citations
Mindfulness training helps people change health behaviors partly by improving how they listen to and trust internal bodily signals, a process called interoceptive appreciation. In a randomized trial with 274 primary care patients who had depression, anxiety, or stress disorders related to chronic illness, those who received Mindfulness Training for Primary Care showed greater initiation of a chosen health behavior action plan compared to a low-dose mindfulness group. The effect was mediated by interoceptive appreciation: among patients without depression, listening to bodily signals played a key role; among those with moderate-to-severe depression, trusting bodily signals was more important. Regaining body trust may be a crucial step for behavior change in depression.
Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging
March 1, 2025
Michael Datko, Jacqueline Lutz, Richa Gawande et al.
1 citation
Mindfulness training for primary care patients with anxiety or depression increased activity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex when anticipating pain, and this brain change was strongly linked to initiating health behavior changes. Greater increases in this brain response correlated with higher levels of action plan initiation, suggesting that mindfulness strengthens emotion regulation and goal-directed behavior in the face of discomfort.
The American psychologist
January 1, 2025
Dominique A Malebranche, Rahil Rojiani, River Chevannes et al.
1 citation
Psychology's colonial roots of disconnection and domination obstruct collective well-being through individualism, disembodiment, and secularization. The antidote is love as a decolonial praxis of reconnection to each other, to bodies, and to Spirit. This praxis is illustrated through the creation of a community intervention called critical contemplative dialogues (CCD), tailored for Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color and piloted with seven contemplatives. The intervention is grounded in critical, contemplative, and dialogic frameworks and manifests love through themes of witnessing, dialogue, embodied practice, emergence, and ceremony. Eight emergent guiding values center radical healing and liberation, pointing toward broader applications in psychology.
Frontiers in Public Health
January 1, 2025
Richa Gawande, Felipe Kalatauma Rosario, Carlos Santiago et al.
1 citation
A community-based peer-led mindfulness intervention called Mandela Yoga, co-developed by Black and Brown yoga teachers, therapists, and community leaders with lived experience of recovery, incarceration, chronic illness, and racism, was implemented as part of a Federally Qualified Health Center reentry program for men of color recently released from incarceration. A qualitative analysis of a 12-week implementation documented attendance and conducted interviews with the peer facilitator and one participant. Four key themes emerged: breath and mind-body connection leading to presence; consistency; peer connection; and agency and positive action. Mandela Yoga shows promise as a mind-body-community intervention for communities of color in recovery and post-incarceration.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2024
Eunmi Kim, Diane Joss, Frannie Marin et al.
1 citation
This registered clinical trial protocol describes a planned study of Heart-Smile Training (HST), a compassion-based meditation program that cultivates awareness of heart-area bodily signals (interoception), for people with depression. The study aims to test the feasibility of the intervention and research procedures and to investigate neurocardiac mechanisms, specifically changes in the Heartbeat Evoked Potential measured by EEG. Fifty participants will be randomly assigned to a 4-week HST group or a waitlist control. Outcomes include depression severity, EEG gamma activity, heart rate variability, and psychological measures of self-compassion, mindfulness, and social connectedness. Results are not yet available.
Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging
December 1, 2022
Michael Datko, Jacqueline Lutz, Richa Gawande et al.
An 8-week Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC) program altered brain activity during interoceptive attention in adults with anxiety and/or depression. After training, fMRI scans showed increased response in the left anterior insula when participants focused on their heartbeat compared to a visual task. Among patients with moderate-to-severe depression, this increased insula response was linked to greater Body Trusting—a sense of trusting one's own body sensations and viewing the body as a safe place to attend to. The findings suggest that depression severity influences how patients respond to mindfulness-based treatment, and that cultivating body trust may be a key component for those with more severe depression.
Harvard Review of Psychiatry
November 1, 2020
Zev Schuman-Olivier, Marcelo Trombka, D. Lovas et al.
Mindfulness, defined as nonjudgmental present-moment awareness, can help initiate and maintain behavior change, which is crucial for preventing and treating chronic medical and psychiatric illnesses. This integrative review synthesizes the neuroscience of mindfulness, integrating motivation and learning mechanisms into a mindful self-regulation model that explains how mindfulness affects behavior change. It also reviews clinical research on mindfulness-based interventions for health behaviors relevant to psychiatric care. The authors highlight current research limitations and propose mechanisms for future study to enhance mindfulness's impact on behavior change.