Mindfulness, mindful eating and intuitive eating practices are associated with healthier eating and lower body weight. However, experimental research in this area has shown mixed effects on food intake and theoretical accounts are underdeveloped. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effect of mindfulness, mindful eating and intuitive eating interventions on food intake...
The growing body of research on mindfulness has led to the development of a wide range of self-report instruments designed to assess the construct. However, conceptual and psychometric issues have arisen, partly as a result of inconsistent definitions and operationalizations, but also from challenges in scale development and validation. This systematic review synthesizes and evaluates the...
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) is considered a promising treatment strategy in psychiatric disorders, combining psychotherapeutic interventions with the rapid-acting pharmacological effects of ketamine towards enhancing outcomes. Although KAP has been practiced for many years across different diagnoses, evidence regarding optimal treatment methods and working mechanisms remains limited...
Second-generation mindfulness-based interventions (SG-MBIs), which integrate ethical and moral practices, have emerged as promising treatments for depressive and anxiety symptoms. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effectiveness of SG-MBIs in reducing depression and anxiety among adults. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including adults from clinical...
Dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions have been linked to emotion regulation and may reduce anger and aggression. The present set of four meta-analyses examined and quantified correlational relationships between trait mindfulness, trait anger, and trait aggression, as well as the effects of experimental mindfulness-based interventions on anger and aggression. These...
Developmental trauma (DT), defined as abuse or neglect before age 18, is linked with elevated risk and poorer outcomes in psychosis. This systematic review aimed to elucidate the relationship between DT and dissociation in psychosis and discern the potential mediating role of dissociation in the link between DT and psychotic manifestations. Our study protocol was pre-registered with PROSPERO...
Loving-kindness meditations involve sending feelings of kindness and care to a series of people including oneself, loved ones, strangers, and all beings. Loving-kindness interventions (LKIs), which include knowledge and/or practice related to loving-kindness, have been gaining attention as a potential intervention for improving mental health in adults. This meta-analysis synthesized the effects...
Mindfulness apps have become popular tools for addressing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Since the publication of earlier meta-analyses evaluating the efficacy of mindfulness apps for depression and anxiety symptoms, over 20 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been conducted. There is a need for an updated meta-analysis that quantifies the effects of mindfulness apps on these symptoms...
Nightmares occur across a wide range of psychiatric disorders, but outside of PTSD presentations are infrequently considered a treatment priority. We aimed to assess evidence for a contributory causal role of nightmares to the occurrence of psychiatric disorders, and vice versa. A systematic review was conducted of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies. Twenty-four...
BACKGROUND While Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is recommended as first-line treatment for depression, a significant minority do not show an adequate treatment response. Despite evidence for the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Therapies (MBT) both in treating current depression and preventing relapse, it remains unknown whether MBT and CBT are equivalent in the treatment of current...
Acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies have shown efficacy in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Arguably, acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies target core processes in anxiety and depression by increasing mindful attention, decentering, and acceptance. The present study identified randomized controlled trials of acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies for anxiety and...
One proposed pathway that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may offer a salutogenic effect on somatic disorders is by enhancing immune function. As such, we conducted a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials examining the effect of MBIs at post-intervention and follow-up for six immune-related biomarkers, including CD4+ cells, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, nuclear factor-κB,...
Over the last decade there has been an explosion of interest in mindfulness-based self-help (MBSH) interventions. While widely available and extensively promoted, there is little consensus on their impact in public health or healthcare contexts. We present a systematic review and meta-analyses of 83 randomized controlled trials, comparing unguided MBSH to control conditions on outcomes of...
Trait mindfulness appears to be related to lower levels of negative affective symptoms, but it remains uncertain which facets of mindfulness are most important in this relationship. Accordingly, the present meta-analysis examined studies reporting correlations between affective symptoms and trait mindfulness as assessed by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. A comprehensive search yielded...
Mindfulness meditation has a long tradition of being used to manage cravings. This paper reviews 30 experimental studies that have examined the effects of different types of mindfulness practice on cravings for food, cigarettes and alcohol. The findings are interpreted in light of relevant theories of craving. The studies show most support for the elaborated intrusion theory of desire and...
Despite widespread scientific and popular interest in mindfulness-based interventions, questions regarding the empirical status of these treatments remain. We sought to examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions for clinical populations on disorder-specific symptoms. To address the question of relative efficacy, we coded the strength of the comparison group into five categories: no...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and debilitating disorder that affects the lives of 7-8% of adults in the U.S. Although several interventions demonstrate clinical effectiveness for treating PTSD, many patients continue to have residual symptoms and ask for a variety of treatment options. Complementary health approaches, such as meditation and yoga, hold promise for treating...
Research on nightmares has largely focused on the nightmare itself and its associated negative consequences, framing nightmare sufferers as victims of a diathesis-stress induced form of psychopathology. However, there is evidence that frequent nightmare recallers are sensitive to a wide range of sensory and emotional experiences, and report vivid, bizarre and even intensely positive dream and...
Recently, there has been an increased interest in studying the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for people with psychological and physical problems. However, the mechanisms of action in these interventions that lead to beneficial physical and psychological outcomes have yet to be clearly identified. The aim of this paper is to review, systematically, the evidence to date on the...
Despite evidence linking trait mindfulness and mindfulness training with a broad range of effects, still little is known about its underlying active mechanisms. Mindfulness is commonly defined as (1) the ongoing monitoring of present-moment experience (2) with an orientation of acceptance. Building on conceptual, clinical, and empirical work, we describe a testable theoretical account to help...
Recent decades have seen a surge of research interest in the phenomenon of healthy individuals who experience auditory verbal hallucinations, yet do not exhibit distress or need for care. The aims of the present systematic review are to provide a comprehensive overview of this research and examine how healthy voice-hearers may best be conceptualised in relation to the diagnostic versus 'quasi-'...
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are increasingly being delivered through the Internet. Whereas numerous meta-analyses have investigated the effectiveness of face-to-face MBIs in the context of mental health and well-being, thus far a quantitative synthesis of the effectiveness of online MBIs is lacking. The aim of this meta-analysis was to estimate the overall effects of online MBIs on...
Background: Sleep dysfunction is extremely common in patients with schizophrenia. Recent research indicates that sleep dysfunction may contribute to psychotic experiences such as delusions and hallucinations. Objectives: The review aims to evaluate the evidence for a relationship between sleep dysfunction and individual psychotic experiences, make links between the theoretical understanding of...
BACKGROUND The investigation of treatment mechanisms in randomized controlled trials has considerable clinical and theoretical relevance. Despite the empirical support for the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in the treatment of recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD), the specific mechanisms by which MBCT leads to therapeutic change remain unclear. OBJECTIVE By means of a...
Given the extensive evidence base for the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), researchers have started to explore the mechanisms underlying their therapeutic effects on psychological outcomes, using methods of mediation analysis. No known studies have systematically reviewed and statistically integrated mediation studies in this...