Journal of Anxiety Disorders
June 1, 2024
Nur Hani Zainal, Hui Han Tan, Ryan Y Hong et al.
13 citations
A 14-day mindfulness ecological momentary intervention (MEMI) for social anxiety disorder was compared with a self-monitoring app in a randomized trial with 191 participants. The MEMI produced small but statistically significant improvements in momentary depression, anxiety, and mindfulness. However, no between-group differences were found for social anxiety symptoms, worry, depression severity, repetitive negative thinking, or trait mindfulness at post-intervention or one-month follow-up. Within the MEMI group, depression severity decreased significantly, while the self-monitoring group showed no such reduction. The findings suggest that brief MEMI may offer limited added benefit over self-monitoring for social anxiety disorder but could have value in stepped-care settings.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
March 1, 2025
Johannes J Bürkle, Stefan Schmidt, Johannes C Fendel
7 citations
Mindfulness- and acceptance-based programmes (MABPs) produce large reductions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) severity, according to a meta-analysis of 46 trials involving 2221 patients. In randomized controlled trials, MABPs outperformed medication and waitlist controls but did not differ from cognitive behavioral therapy or exposure and response prevention. Depressive symptoms decreased with small to moderate effects, and improvements in anxiety, obsessive beliefs, and quality of life were moderate to large. Increases in mindfulness and psychological flexibility predicted OCD symptom reductions. Outcomes were not moderated by treatment duration or therapist characteristics. The authors call for more high-quality trials with long-term follow-ups to confirm the findings.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
July 1, 2025
Tomoko Kishimoto, Ximing Hao, Qiyu Bai
3 citations
Savoring meditation, a positive emotion intervention, produces a distinct autonomic pattern compared to breathing relaxation in people with probable generalized anxiety disorder. In a pilot randomized trial, 44 participants with moderate or higher anxiety severity were assigned to either savoring meditation or breathing relaxation. Heart rate variability indicators showed that savoring meditation increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic activity, while breathing relaxation showed the opposite pattern. Despite these different autonomic signatures, both interventions led to similar and significant reductions in anxiety after worrying. The findings suggest that savoring meditation may reduce anxiety through unique autonomic mechanisms, offering new possibilities for anxiety treatment.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
June 1, 2025
Timothy J Mcdermott, Greg J Siegle, Alfonsina Guelfo et al.
2 citations
A clinical trial tested whether adding vibration to breath-focused mindfulness meditation (VABF) reduces respiration rate or variability in trauma-exposed adults with dissociation. 128 participants were randomly assigned to VABF, breath-focus only, vibration only, or open awareness. VABF decreased respiration variability across visits, while all other interventions increased it. Respiration variability was positively associated with anxiety and anger ratings. The findings suggest respiration variability is a meaningful metric for examining regulatory processes and is modifiable through VABF, which holds promise as an intervention for trauma-exposed populations.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
July 22, 2025
Tomoko Kishimoto, Ximing Hao, Jianwei Qian
A savoring meditation intervention reduced depression and positive emotion contrast-seeking (PEC-seeking), a maladaptive strategy of sustaining negative affect to enhance later positive emotions, in Chinese college students with elevated anxiety and depression. In a randomized trial, 59 participants were assigned to two weeks of group savoring meditation or a waitlist. Depression declined significantly at mid-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up, with large effect sizes. Savoring beliefs increased, and PEC-seeking decreased, with reductions in PEC-seeking mediating depression improvement. Negative affect also decreased during sessions. Anxiety symptoms declined within the intervention group but did not differ significantly from the waitlist group. The findings suggest that targeting PEC-seeking through savoring meditation may reduce emotional disorder symptoms.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
July 1, 2026
Paweł Holas, Jan Wardęszkiewicz, Malgorzata Grochowska et al.
A randomized controlled trial with 301 adults diagnosed with Adjustment Disorder tested a brief, internet-delivered Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (iMBCT) against internet-delivered progressive muscle relaxation (iPMR) and a waitlist control over four weeks. iMBCT reduced Adjustment Disorder symptoms more than the waitlist control and produced higher remission rates. Compared with iPMR, iMBCT led to larger decreases in depression and anxiety. Cognitive defusion fully mediated iMBCT's effects on depression and anxiety. Some improvements persisted at one-month follow-up, but the authors caution that findings are mixed due to substantial attrition.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
June 1, 2022
P. Spinhoven, E. Hoogerwerf, Anne E van Giezen et al.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) led to larger reductions in anxiety, avoidance, emotion regulation difficulties, and worry, and larger increases in mindfulness skills, compared to Relapse Prevention-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT-RP) for outpatients with treatment-refractory anxiety disorders who had not responded sufficiently to first-line psychological treatment. At a 6-month follow-up, treatment gains were somewhat diminished. The effects of MBCT on anxiety at post-treatment were not mediated by mindfulness skills, emotion regulation, worry, or rumination at mid-treatment.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
January 1, 2021
Inka Papenfuss, Miriam J. J. Lommen, Christian Grillon et al.
People who are more mindful tend to report less anxiety, and this relationship is partly explained by lower intolerance of uncertainty (IU). In a study of 53 healthy adults, participants completed self-report measures of mindfulness, anxiety, and IU, and also underwent a threat-of-shock task (NPU-threat test) that measured physiological and subjective responses to uncertain threat. IU mediated the effect of mindfulness on some anxiety symptoms. However, physiological and subjective reactions to uncertain threat were largely unrelated to mindfulness, anxiety, or IU. The findings suggest that reactions to uncertainty may help explain how mindfulness reduces anxiety, but the laboratory threat measure did not capture this link.
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
January 10, 2017
Matthew D Thurston, P. Goldin, R. Heimberg et al.
Cognitive-behavioral group therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction both improved self-views in social anxiety disorder. One hundred eight unmedicated patients were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of CBGT, MBSR, or a waitlist. At baseline, patients endorsed more negative and fewer positive self-views than 40 healthy controls. Both therapies decreased negative self-views and increased positive self-views from pre- to post-treatment. Increases in positive self-views, but not decreases in negative ones, predicted reduced social anxiety symptoms. Enhancement of positive self-views may be a shared therapeutic process for both treatments.