This manuscript presents two studies on the effect of mindfulness meditation on duration judgment and its relationship to the subjective experience of time when the interval durations are on the second or the minute time scale. After the first 15 minutes of a 30-min meditation or control exercise, meditation-trained participants judged interval durations of 15 to 50 s or 2 to 6 min, during...
Introduction: Depressive, anxiety and adjustment disorders are highly prevalent among mental health outpatients. The lack of funding for mental health problems produces inefficient results and a high burden of disease. New cost-effective group interventions aimed at treating these symptoms might be an appropriate solution to reduce the healthcare burden in mental health units. Mindfulness-based...
Experiential acceptance—an orientation of receptivity and noninterference with present-moment experiences—is described as central to mindfulness interventions, yet little experimental work has tested acceptance as a mechanism for mindfulness intervention effects. Guided by Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT), this review situates acceptance as an emotion regulation mechanism and reviews...
Stress is a commonly reported concern of individuals with chronical diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). This study sought to investigate the relationships between self-transcendence, death anxiety, and perceived stress among individuals with MS from Iran. A second aim of the study was to assess the buffering effect of self-transcendence in the relationship between death anxiety and...
Ayahuasca, a plant-based hallucinogen that serves as a spiritual medicine in South America, has improved depression in at least one placebo-controlled clinical trial. Case studies suggest that dramatic behavioral changes often follow the Ayahuasca ceremony, but most explanations of antidepressant effects focus on changes in mindfulness. This study investigated whether both mindfulness and...
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a potent hallucinogenic substance that was extensively investigated by psychiatrists during the 1950s and 1960s. Researchers were interested in the unique effects induced by this substance, some of which resemble symptoms seen in schizophrenia. Moreover, during that period LSD was studied and used for the treatment of several mental disorders such as...
The psychedelic research renaissance is gaining traction. Preliminary clinical studies of the hallucinogenic fungi, psilocybin, with psychological support, have indicated improvements in mood, anxiety and quality of life. A seminal, open-label study demonstrated marked reductions in depression symptoms in participants with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The associated neurobiological...
Loving kindness meditation and compassion meditation are traditional Buddhist practices that have recently been introduced and investigated in psychotherapy with promising results. Both meditation practices emphasize metta, a mental state of positive energy and kindness towards oneself and other beings, as opposed to the anger, hostility, or self-loathing that often accompany emotional...
Background: There is a growing interest in the use of psychedelic substances for health related purposes, including symptom relief for disorders like anxiety, depression, and pain. Although the focus of recent clinical trials has been on high doses of these substances, anecdotal evidence suggests that low (micro) doses are also effective, and may be more suitable for certain conditions....
Introduction: The development of many lifestyle-related chronic disorders occurs as a result of stress and anxiety. In recent years, in order to overcome lifestyle-related problems, people are increasingly making use of mindfulness meditation mobile applications despite the fact that there is no substantial evidence that this practice has benefits for their health. Aim: Testing the...
Background and aims Given the enormous global burden of depressive illness, there is an urgent need to develop novel and more effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD). Recent findings have suggested that psychedelic drugs may have a role in the treatment of depressive symptoms, and a number of groups are in the process of developing protocols to study this question...
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a prevalent mental health condition with substantial impact on daily functioning that lacks sufficient treatment options. Here we evaluate six phase 2 trials in a pooled analysis to determine the study design for phase 3 trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. Six randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials at five study sites were conducted...
Background: The health improvement for pregnant women in antenatal phase is not only focused on maintaining physical health, but also the psychological health. One of the factors of maternal psychological health is anxiety. Anxiety is common in pregnant women caused by maternal concerns about complications that accompany the mother and her fetus. The increasing anxiety in pregnant women can...
This study examined effects of a mindfulness induction on proximal and distal defense responses to mortality salience and negative affect. Three experimental conditions were included: mindfulness, mind-wandering, and worrying. Participants in the mindfulness condition underwent a mindfulness induction at the experiment’s outset, while participants in the other two conditions underwent a...
Multiple initiatives at the national and international level support natural drug discovery. Psychiatrists and patients are not well informed about natural psychotropics in general. Existing antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs were developed from atropine, a natural product. Subsequent drug developments were largely based on extension and modification of earlier molecular scaffolds. This...
Abstract To what extent meditation techniques (which incorporate practices to regulate attention, construct individual values, or deconstruct self-related assumptions), are more or less effective than relaxation therapy in the treatment of anxiety, is not clear. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of meditation compared to relaxation in reducing anxiety. A systematic review...
Objectives: This study compared the impact of two different 8-week mindfulness based courses (.b Foundations and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)), delivered to school teachers, on quantitative (stress, anxiety and depression) and qualitative (experience, acceptability and implementation) outcomes. Design: A mixed-methods design was employed. Matched-paired t-tests were used to examine...
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the studies that used interventions based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for decreasing psychological distress among nurses. BACKGROUND: Because of the demanding nature of their work, nurses often have significantly high levels of stress, anxiety and depression. MBSR has been reported to be an effective intervention to decrease psychological...
JAMA NeurologyJuly 1, 2019J. Kwok, J. Kwan, M. Auyeung et al.
Importance Clinical practice guidelines support exercise for patients with Parkinson disease (PD), but to our knowledge, no randomized clinical trials have tested whether yoga is superior to conventional physical exercises for stress and symptom management. Objective To compare the effects of a mindfulness yoga program vs stretching and resistance training exercise (SRTE) on psychological...
N-[[1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indazol-3-yl]carbonyl]-L-valine methyl ester (5F-AMB) is a synthetic cannabinoid that has been distributed recently. Although inhalation of 5F-AMB produces adverse effects, such as impaired memory and disturbed consciousness, in humans, the psychopharmacological effects of 5F-AMB in rodents have not been investigated. We first examined the effects of intraperitoneal...