Psychophysiological stress response after a 6-week Mindful Self-Compassion training in psychiatric rehabilitation inpatients: a randomized post-test only study
Andrea Andorfer, Sabina Kraler, Paul Kaufmann, Ewald Pollheimer, Christoph Spah, Jürgen Fuchshuber, Christian Rominger, Claudia Traunmüller, Andreas Richard Schwerdtfeger, Human‐Friedrich Unterrainer
Frontiers in Psychiatry July 18, 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1098122 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional comparison (post-test only design) Randomized Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Inpatients in a 6-week psychiatric rehabilitation program |
| Interventions | Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) |
| Duration | 6-week psychiatric rehabilitation stay |
| Measures | heart rate variability, heart rate, blood pressure, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Visual Analog Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory-18 |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key findings | After correction for alpha inflation, no differences in psychophysiological stress response or psychometric parameters were found between the Mindful Self-Compassion and Progressive Muscle Relaxation groups. The authors indicate that MSC is not superior to PMR training, while calling for larger randomized controlled trials to confirm these initial findings. |
Abstract
Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions (including self-compassion interventions) are effective in improving stress management at psychological and physical levels. Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) is a newly developed program particularly aimed at increasing self-compassion. The main objective of this study was to determine whether the psychophysiological stress response during a social-evaluative speaking task differs in inpatients participating in the MSC or the Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) program at the end of their 6-week psychiatric rehabilitation stay (i.e., post-test only design).
Method: = 12.44) were analyzed in terms of psychophysiological stress response. For this purpose, heart rate variability, heart rate, and blood pressure were assessed together with several psychometric variables: positive and negative affect (PANAS), subjective stress perception (Visual Analog Scale), self-compassion (Self-Compassion Scale), cognitive reappraisal and suppression (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire), psychological distress (Brief Symptom Inventory-18), and appraisal and rumination (selected items).
Results: After correction for alpha inflation no differences in the psychophysiological stress response and psychometric parameters between the MSC and PMR group were found.
Discussion: In general, our results indicate that MSC is not superior to PMR training. However, more research with clinical randomized controlled trials investigating larger samples are needed to further affirm these initial findings.