Improve Schizophrenia with Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Research shows that some mindfulness-based interventions for psychotic symptoms can afford people a greater acceptance and insight into their experiences. They can also reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression which often accompany, and may exacerbate, psychotic disorders.” – Adrianna Mendrek
Schizophrenia is the most common form of psychosis. Its effects about 1% of the population worldwide. It appears to be highly heritable and involves changes in the brain. It is characterized by both positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations; seeing and, in some cases, feeling, smelling or tasting things that aren’t there, or delusions; unshakable beliefs that, when examined rationally, are obviously untrue. Negative symptoms include a reduced ability to function normally, neglect of personal hygiene, lack of emotion, blank facial expressions, speaking in a monotone, loss of interest in everyday activities, social withdrawal, an inability to experience pleasure, and a lack of insight into their symptoms. The symptoms of schizophrenia usually do not appear until late adolescence or early adulthood.
Schizophrenia is very difficult to treat with psychotherapy and is usually treated with antipsychotic drugs. These drugs, however, are not always effective, sometimes lose effectiveness, and can have some difficult side effects. Mindfulness training has been shown to be beneficial for a variety of mental health problems, including psychosis. Mindfulness has also been shown to associated with lower symptom severity of schizophrenia. The evidence is accumulating. So, it makes sense to step back and summarize what has been learned.
In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness-Based Interventions for People with Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7369977/) Hodann-Caudevilla and colleagues review, summarize, and perform a meta-analysis of the published research studies on the effectiveness of mindfulness training on the symptoms of schizophrenia. The identified 10 published studies that included a total of 1096 participants. The trainings usually included treatment as usual, mindfulness training, psychoeducation, and group exercises.
They report that the published research studies found that mindfulness training resulted in significant increases in mindfulness and significant improvements of overall schizophrenic symptoms after training and also 6-months later with large effect sizes. These improvements were in both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and the individual’s awareness of their illness.
These results are excellent and suggest that mindfulness training when provided along with the usual treatments produce large and significant improvements in the symptoms of schizophrenia. There has been, for a long time, a worry that mindfulness training for individuals with psychosis might actually exacerbate the illness. But the review suggests that the opposite, in fact, is true with mindfulness training greatly improving the illness.
So, improve schizophrenia with mindfulness.
“There is emerging evidence that mindfulness for psychosis – when used in an adapted form – is safe and therapeutic.” – Paul Charwick
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Hodann-Caudevilla, R. M., Díaz-Silveira, C., Burgos-Julián, F. A., & Santed, M. A. (2020). Mindfulness-Based Interventions for People with Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(13), 4690. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134690
Abstract
(1) Background: There is increasing interest in the practice of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to treat people with schizophrenia, as evidenced by the publication of different randomized controlled trials (RCTs). However, no meta-analysis of RCTs has been carried out to date with the exclusive inclusion of this type of interventions. (2) Objective: To analyze empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of MBIs for the improvement of clinical parameters associated with schizophrenia. Method: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted of RCTs published in the databases PsycINFO, PubMed, WOS, and Cochrane Library. (3) Results: A total of 10 articles (n = 1094) fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the review. The analysis of these studies suggests that MBIs combined with standard interventions are able to generate significant improvements in a variety of clinical schizophrenia-related parameters, such as the intensity of overall symptomatology (g = 0.72), positive symptoms (g = 0.32), negative symptoms (g = 0.40), functioning level (g = 1.28), and awareness of illness (g = 0.65). (4) Conclusions: There is evidence that supports the effectiveness and safety of MBIs for the treatment of people with schizophrenia. The results obtained by MBIs are comparable to those obtained by cognitive-behavioral therapy for psychosis. However, given the heterogeneity of the applied interventions and the methodological limitations found in the reviewed trials, the results should be interpreted with caution.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7369977/