Annual Review of Psychology
September 30, 2016
J. David Creswell
1,669 citations
A review of randomized controlled trials over the past two decades finds that mindfulness interventions—practices that train attention to present-moment experience—improve outcomes across several domains, including chronic pain, depression relapse, and addiction. The article evaluates evidence for effects on health, cognitive, affective, and interpersonal outcomes; applications in new settings such as the workplace, military, and schools; psychological and neurobiological mechanisms; dosing considerations; and potential risks. Methodologically rigorous trials demonstrate these benefits, and discussion highlights opportunities and challenges for future research and community applications.
Annual Review of Psychology
September 14, 2022
Linda E. Carlson
50 citations
People diagnosed with and treated for cancer commonly experience distress, anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence, and caregiver burden, along with fatigue, pain, and sleep disturbance. This review covers psychological reactions across the disease continuum and evaluates interventions such as acceptance-based and mindfulness therapies, mind-body approaches, meaning-based therapies for advanced disease, and psychedelic therapy. It also identifies methodological shortcomings in the evidence base, offers design recommendations, and discusses future directions including pragmatic research designs, digital health interventions, and implementation science.
Annual Review of Psychology
August 2, 2024
Keith Humphreys, Daniel Stjepanović, Wayne Hall et al.
18 citations
Many psychedelic drugs lack rigorous evaluation, but the science is improving. Ketamine shows promise for treatment-resistant depression despite risks like addiction and cystitis. MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for depression, end-of-life dysphoria, and alcohol use disorder merit further replication. The mechanisms of benefit and harm remain unclear. Rigorous research is needed to assess therapeutic potential, and policies should prioritize public health over profit.
Annual Review of Psychology
January 1, 2026
Yuval Hadash, Omer Dar, Iftach Amir et al.
A new framework, the Mindfulness Internal Attention (MIA) framework, proposes that mindfulness training primarily targets internal attention—processes operating on internally generated or stored information—rather than early-stage external attention. The framework reviews evidence suggesting that mindfulness training affects executive functions and working memory shared between internal and late-stage external attention, but does not affect early-stage external attention processes that do not share cognitive resources with internal attention. This account reconciles the paradoxical disparity between theoretical predictions and mixed empirical findings from over two decades of research on attention and mindfulness.
Annual Review of Psychology
January 3, 2015
Jonathan Smallwood, Jonathan W. Schooler
Conscious experience is fluid, rarely staying on one topic for long. Mind wandering illustrates this, as attention shifts from a current task to unrelated thoughts and feelings. Its content and relation to meta-cognition determine functional outcomes. Mind wandering involves perceptual decoupling to escape the moment, with content arising from episodic and affective processes, regulated by executive control. It carries costs, linked to errors, and benefits, associated with creativity and future planning. Strategies can minimize downsides while maintaining productive aspects.