Reduce Stress and Increase Well-Being in People with Schizophrenia with Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“In schizophrenic patients, mindfulness intervention leads to better psychosocial functioning, improved positive emotions, and reduced negative symptoms.” – Jia‐Ling Sheng
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.
In today’s Research News article “Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Affect, and Wellbeing among People with Schizophrenia.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8617870/ ) Kim and colleagues recruited patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at two centers. The participants from one center constituted the no-treatment control condition while those from the other received 8-weekly 60 minute sessions of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. The participants were measured before and after the treatment and 6 weeks later for perceived stress, positive and negative emotions, well-being, and heart rate variability.
They found that in comparison to baseline and the control group, the group that received Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) had significantly lower perceived stress and negative emotions and significantly higher heart rate variability. Increases in heart rate variability indicates a reduction in physiological activation, an increase in parasympathetic relaxation, providing a physiological indicator of reduced stress. These changes remained significant at the 6 week follow up.
These findings demonstrate that mindfulness training with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is effective in reducing stress and negative emotions in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Mindfulness training has been shown, in the past with a variety of groups to reduce stress, negative emotions, and heart rate variability. The present findings demonstrate that mindfulness training also improves the psychological well-being in patients with a major mental illness. This suggests that MBSR should be incorporated into the treatment program for patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
So, reduce stress and increase well-being in people with schizophrenia with mindfulness.
“meditation is the best and successful treatment for Schizophrenia without any side-effects, caused by the very strong medications.” – Ruchi Singhal
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Kim, A. S., Jang, M. H., & Sun, M. J. (2021). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Stress, Heart Rate Variability, Affect, and Wellbeing among People with Schizophrenia. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(22), 11871. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211871
Abstract
Mindfulness-based stress reduction programs have been found to be effective in reducing the stress response and improving the psychological wellbeing of various populations. We aimed to confirm the effects of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program on perceived stress, heart rate variability, positive and negative affect, and subjective wellbeing of community-dwelling people with schizophrenia. The participants in this study were 26 people with schizophrenia (experimental group: 14, control group: 12) enrolled in two community mental health centers located in Gyeonggi Province in South Korea. In the experimental group, the mindfulness-based stress reduction program was applied once a week for 60 min over 8 weeks. The experimental group showed a significantly greater decrease in perceived stress and negative affect, as well as significantly greater improvement in heart rate variability than the control group. The mindfulness-based stress reduction program was an effective nursing intervention to reduce stress and negative affect in people with schizophrenia.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8617870/