Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder
Emotion February 1, 2010 DOI: 10.1037/a0018441 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training in adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD) reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and improved self-esteem. After completing MBSR, patients showed decreased negative emotion experience and reduced amygdala activity during a breath-focused attention task, alongside increased activity in brain regions involved in attentional deployment. These changes were not seen during a distraction-focused attention task. The findings suggest MBSR may reduce emotional reactivity and enhance emotion regulation in SAD, potentially decreasing avoidance behaviors and automatic emotional responses to negative self-beliefs.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Pre-post intervention study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 16 |
| Population | Adults with social anxiety disorder |
| Intervention | Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) |
| Duration | Pre- and post-MBSR assessments |
| Keywords | Medicine Psychology |
| Key finding | MBSR training reduced emotional reactivity and enhanced emotion regulation in patients with SAD, as shown by decreased negative emotion experience, reduced amygdala activity, and increased activity in attentional brain regions during a breath-focused attention task. |
Abstract
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an established program shown to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. MBSR is believed to alter emotional responding by modifying cognitive–affective processes. Given that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by emotional and attentional biases as well as distorted negative self-beliefs, we examined MBSR-related changes in the brain-behavior indices of emotional reactivity and regulation of negative self-beliefs in patients with SAD. Sixteen patients underwent functional MRI while reacting to negative self-beliefs and while regulating negative emotions using 2 types of attention deployment emotion regulation—breath-focused attention and distraction-focused attention. Post-MBSR, 14 patients completed neuroimaging assessments. Compared with baseline, MBSR completers showed improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms and self-esteem. During the breath-focused attention task (but not the distraction-focused attention task), they also showed (a) decreased negative emotion experience, (b) reduced amygdala activity, and (c) increased activity in brain regions implicated in attentional deployment. MBSR training in patients with SAD may reduce emotional reactivity while enhancing emotion regulation. These changes might facilitate reduction in SAD-related avoidance behaviors, clinical symptoms, and automatic emotional reactivity to negative self-beliefs in adults with SAD.