Objective: To analyze the effect of the 'Exercise Without Movement' (E.W.M) yoga method on mindfulness and on the improvement of anxiety and depression symptoms. Methods: A quasi-experimental study examined the effect of one month E.W.M. intervention among 38 participants who were enrolled voluntarily to both groups, study (n = 16) and control (n = 22). Five participants dropped out during the...
Relapse and recurrence are common and debilitating aspects of major depressive disorder. Furthermore, the risk of developing a chronic course of illness increases with each successive episode and, even among patients who achieve clinical remission, residual depressive symptoms are commonly reported. Maintenance antidepressant monotherapy is effective as long as it is continued, yet in practice...
BackgroundChronic pain patients increasingly seek treatment through mindfulness meditation.PurposeThis study aims to synthesize evidence on efficacy and safety of mindfulness meditation interventions for the treatment of chronic pain in adults.MethodWe conducted a systematic review on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with meta-analyses using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method for...
Background: Approximately 10-20 % of adults with intellectual disabilities engage in challenging behaviours such as aggression, destructiveness, and self-injury, which are often accompanied by feelings of anger. The inability to manage anger can reduce quality of life. For example, aggression is a strong predictor of out-of-area placements and is a risk variable for abuse. Recent research...
MindfulnessSeptember 13, 2016Yoona Kang, Matthew Brook O'Donnell, Victor J Strecher et al.
Feelings can shape how people respond to persuasive messages. In health communication, adaptive affective responses to potentially threating messages constitute one key to intervention success. The current study tested dispositional mindfulness, characterized by awareness of the present moment, as a predictor of adaptive affective responses to potentially threatening health messages and...
There is a growing body of evidence exploring the beneficial effects of mindfulness on stress, sleep quality, and memory, though the mechanisms involved are less certain. The present study explored the roles of perceived stress and sleep quality as potential mediators between dispositional mindfulness and subjective memory problems. Data were from a Boston area subsample of the Midlife in the...
Lung cancer patients and their spouses report high rates of distress. Due to the increasing popularity of and evidence for mindfulness-based interventions in cancer, mindfulness and self-compassion have been identified as potentially helpful skills when coping with cancer. This dyadic study examined how mindfulness and self-compassion are related to psychological distress and communication...
ReligionsSeptember 6, 2016Jeffrey C. Ruff3 citations
Several recent publications in the study of esoteric traditions have drawn together insights from scholars of religions and philosophy, contemplative communities, metaphor and conceptual blend theories, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and physical anthropology. These interdisciplinary explorations revolve around contemplative practices (meditation, mindfulness, ritual traditions, etc.). This...
Objective: To compare the efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Addiction Treatment (MBAT) to a Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT) that matched MBAT on treatment contact time, and a Usual Care (UC) condition that comprised brief individual counseling. Method: Participants (N = 412) were 48.2% African American, 41.5% non-Latino White, 5.4% Latino, and 4.9% other, and 57.6% reported a total annual...
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has been shown to reduce the risk of relapse in patients with recurrent depression, but relapse rates remain high. To further improve outcome for this group of patients, follow-up interventions may be needed. Compassion training focuses explicitly on developing self-compassion, one of the putative working mechanisms of MBCT. No previous research has...
Although suicide ranks 10th as a cause of death in the United States, and 1st among active military personnel, there are surprisingly few evidence-based therapies addressing suicidality, and development of new treatments is limited. This paper describes a clinical trial testing a novel therapy for reducing suicide risk in military veterans. The intervention, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy...
Military MedicineSeptember 2016Carol D Crisp, Marie Hastings-Tolsma, Karen R Jonscher
One of the most common reasons women seek gynecologic health care services is for chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and women in the military are no exception. For women diagnosed with CPP, the burden can be difficult as they struggle to perform military obligations. A chronic low-grade systemic disease believed triggered by inflammation, CPP is difficult to diagnose and treat. With limited treatment...
Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) for insomnia and sleep disturbances are receiving increasing clinical and research attention. This paper provides a critical appraisal of this growing area investigating the application of MBIs for people with insomnia and sleep disturbance. First, we discuss the theoretical justification for how mindfulness meditation practice may affect sleep processes....
Despite growing evidence for demonstrated efficacy of mindfulness in various disorders, there is a continuous concern about the relationship between mindfulness practice and psychosis. As schizotypy is part of the psychosis spectrum, we examined the relationship between long-term mindfulness practice and schizotypy in two independent studies. Study 1 included 24 experienced mindfulness...
There is a lack of studies about psychological interventions for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their caregivers. We investigated the experience of a meditation training program tailored for ALS needs. People with ALS (pALS) and their caregivers that joined a meditation program for ALS were interviewed at the end of the program. Verbatims were analyzed with a qualitative...
Mindfulness-based interventions have been increasingly utilized in the management of chronic pain since 1982. This second review of a two-part series evaluates the efficacy, mechanism, and safety of mindfulness meditation for chronic pain, substance use disorder, tobacco use disorder, and insomnia frequently co-occurring after return from deployment. Standard databases were searched until...
Although there is currently insufficient evidence to support meditation as a first-line treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the evidence base for meditation used adjunctively in the management of PTSD and related psychiatric comorbidities is rapidly expanding. The 2010 Veterans Administration/Department of Defense (VA/DoD) clinical practice guideline (CPG) for management of PTSD...
Military MedicineSeptember 1, 2016Marina A Khusid, Meena Vythilingam
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been increasingly utilized in the management of mental health conditions. This first review of a two-part series evaluates the efficacy, mechanism, and safety of mindfulness meditation for mental health conditions frequently seen after return from deployment. Standard databases were searched until August 4, 2015. 52 systematic reviews and randomized...
Mindfulness-oriented therapies have a positive impact on patients' overall well-being and alleviate many psychiatric conditions. However, little is known about their use in people with severe mental illness. We aimed to identify which clinical and sociodemographic factors are associated with suitability/tolerability of a brief group mindfulness-oriented therapy. This retrospective study...
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was introduced in 1995 to address the problem of recurrent depression. MBCT is based on the notion that meditation helps individuals effectively deploy and regulate attention to effectively manage and treat a range of psychological symptoms, including emotional responses to stress, anxiety, and depression. Several studies demonstrate that mindfulness...