MBSR

Recover from Sexual Abuse with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Our unwanted and self-destructive habits often were formed as children to help us survive. Childhood abuse, whether physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, or the covert traumas of neglect, oppression, and isolation, demands that if the child is to survive, she must create coping skills to deal with the abuse and the inherent messages about who she is. Mindfulness offers the possibility of relating differently to what’s already here by understanding that there’s nothing to get rid of and everything to accept.” – Char Wilkins

 

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a horrific crime. The trauma created in the victim changes them forever. It changes the trusting innocence of childhood to a confused, guilt ridden, frightening, and traumatized existence. It not only produces short-term trauma which includes both psychological and physical injury, it has long-term consequences. It damages the victim’s self-esteem and creates difficulties entering into intimate relationship in adulthood. It can create post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) complete with painful flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Victims often experience depression and sometimes become suicidal. It is a heinous crime that haunts the victims for the rest of their lives.

 

Unfortunately, childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is shockingly common. It is estimated that 20% of girls and 10% of boys have experienced childhood sexual abuse and half of these were forcefully assaulted. Children between the ages of 7 and 13 are the most vulnerable but abuse is also prevalent in adolescence with 16% of children between 14 to 17 having been sexually victimized. Compounding the problem disclosure of sexual abuse is often delayed; children often avoid telling because they are either afraid of a negative reaction from their parents or of being harmed by the abuser. As such, they often delay disclosure until adulthood. This makes it unlikely that they’ll seek help and instead suffer in silence.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to be effective in treating victims of trauma and PTSD. So, it would make sense that mindfulness training may be helpful for the treatment of adult CSA survivors. In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Intervention for Child Abuse Survivors: A 2.5-Year Follow-Up.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1271288269561763/?type=3&theater

or below, Earley and colleagues performed a long-term (2.5 year) follow-up of adult survivors of CSA who had received treatment with an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MBSR involves meditation, body scan, and yoga practices. In the original study participants reported significant decreases in levels of depression, PTSD symptoms, and anxiety at treatment’s end (8 weeks), and at follow-up (24 weeks). In the present study, the participants from this original study were invited back and re-measured two and a half years after the completion of the original study.

 

Earley and colleagues found that the decreases in depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms and the increases in mindfulness were sustained. Improvements in PTSD symptoms of re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing/, and hyperarousal were all sustained. Hence, MBSR treatment produced significant improvements in the psychological health of the CSA survivors and these benefits were still present 2.5 years later. It is very unusual for a research study to be followed up this long after completion. But, it is very important. It demonstrates that treatment effects are are not fleeting. These results conclusively demonstrate that the benefits of MBSR treatment for CSA survivors are very long lasting.

 

Mindfulness training is known to improve all of the key symptoms of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) including depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and PTSD symptoms. It may do so by improving emotion regulation allowing the survivors to honestly feel their emotions but respond to them in an adaptive way. It may also do so by focusing the individual on the present moment and thereby reducing the rumination about the past that is so characteristic of CSA survivors. Regardless of the mechanism, the fact that the symptom relief is so long lasting supports use of MBSR training to treat adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

 

So, get over sexual abuse with mindfulness.

 

“Each person’s healing journey, while it will partake of some common elements, will be unique. For professionals, it’s important not to force survivors into a practice that might not work for them. For survivors, it’s important to not get discouraged if we don’t find the right practice at first. There are endless ways to practice being mindful and, sooner or later, something will resonate.” – Christopher Anderson

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Earley, M. D., Chesney, M. A., Frye, J., Greene, P. A., Berman, B., & Kimbrough, E. (2014). Mindfulness Intervention for Child Abuse Survivors: A 2.5-Year Follow-Up. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70(10), 933-941. doi:10.1002/jclp.22102.

 

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The present study reports on the long-term effects of a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

METHOD: Of the study participants, 73% returned to the clinic for a single-session follow-up assessment of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and mindfulness at 2.5 years.

RESULTS: Repeated measures mixed regression analyses revealed significant long-term improvements in depression, PTSD, anxiety symptoms, and mindfulness scores. The magnitude of intervention effects at 128 weeks ranged from d = .5 to d = 1.1.

CONCLUSION: MBSR may be an effective long-term treatment for adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Further investigation of MBSR with this population is warranted given the durability of treatment effects described here.

Reduce Inflammation and Depression with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindfulness is a valuable practice for improving the cognitive symptoms of depression, such as distorted thinking and distractibility. It helps individuals recognize these more subtle symptoms, realize that thoughts are not facts and refocus their attention to the present.” –  Margarita Tartakovsky

 

Major depression is one of the most common mental disorders. In 2014, an estimated 15.7 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. This number represented 6.7% of all adults. In addition, major depression carries the heaviest burden of disability among mental and behavioral disorders. It is most frequently treated with anti-depressive drugs. But, these frequently do not work or lose effectiveness over time and have many troublesome side effects. So, there is a need for better treatment methods.

 

Depression has been linked to chronic inflammation. Patients with major depressive disorder exhibit all of the cardinal features of an inflammatory response, including increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and their receptors. In addition, administration of inflammatory cytokines to otherwise non-depressed individuals cause symptoms of depression. This suggests that chronic inflammation may be a contributing factor to the development, promotion, or maintenance of depression.

 

Mindfulness practice has been shown to be effective in the treatment of chronic depression. It has also been shown to reduce inflammation and the inflammatory cytokines. So, it would make sense to study the relationship of mindfulness training to depression and the inflammatory response in depressed individuals. In today’s Research News article “Brief Mindfulness Training Reduces Salivary IL-6 and TNF-α in Young Women with Depressive Symptomatology.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1270480726309184/?type=3&theater

or below,

Walsh and colleagues do just that. They recruited female college students who had mild to moderate depression and assigned them to either a mindfulness training group or a contact control group. Mindfulness training was modelled after a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and included meditation, body scan, and yoga, but the program was conducted over only 4 weeks rather than the customary 8 weeks. The contact control group met in a group on a similar schedule but simple filled out questionnaires. The participants were measured for salivary inflammatory cytokine levels, depression, and other mental issues both before and training and 3 months later.

 

They found that mindfulness training decreased the levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α between 59% to 76% and this decrease was maintained at the 3 month follow up. There was also a significant decrease in depression but this was true for both the mindfulness and contact groups. The higher the levels of baseline depression the greater the effect of mindfulness training on reducing inflammatory cytokines. These results suggest that mindfulness training is effective in reducing the inflammatory response and that the more depressed the individual is the greater the benefit.

 

These are exciting findings. They suggest that mindfulness training reduces chronic inflammation in depressed women. The fact that the depression levels were low to start with may have produced a floor effect making it impossible to detect a benefit of mindfulness training on the levels of depression. This prohibits and analysis of the relationship of the reduction in the inflammatory cytokines to the reduction in depression. But, the results are suggestive of a potential effect in that the most depressed women showed the greatest reductions in the inflammatory response. It will require further work with women exhibiting higher levels of depression and perhaps with a longer treatment period to conclusively demonstrate whether there’s a causal connection between the two.

 

Mindfulness training has a number of known effects that may underlie its ability to reduce depression and inflammation. In particular mindfulness training has been shown to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. This decreased stress response may be responsible for the reduction in inflammation. In addition, mindfulness training is known to improve focus on the present moment and thereby reduce rumination about the past or worry about the future, both of which are characteristic of depression. This may well underlie the ability of mindfulness training to reduce depression.

 

So, reduce inflammation and depression with mindfulness.

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

“Everyone can benefit from mindfulness meditation, but some can more than others.  There are no negative side effects of mindfulness, and there are the positive benefits of stress reduction and relaxation.  Reducing inflammation and boosting immune health can help fight a broad range of ailments, from a stubbed toe to chronic inflammatory conditions.” – Amanda Page

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Walsh, E., Eisenlohr-Moul, T., & Baer, R. (2016). Brief Mindfulness Training Reduces Salivary IL-6 and TNF-α in Young Women with Depressive Symptomatology. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, doi:10.1037/ccp0000122

 

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Pro-inflammatory cytokines have been implicated in the pathophysiology and maintenance of depression. This study investigated the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on salivary pro-inflammatory correlates of depression (IL-6, TNF-α) and self-reported symptoms of depression in college women.

METHODS: Sixty-four females with a cut score of ≥16 on the Center for Epidemiological Studies for Depression Scale (CES-D) were assigned to a 4-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI; N = 31) or a contact-control group (N = 33). For both groups, salivary cytokines and depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and posttreatment. For the mindfulness group only, salivary cytokines were also assessed at a 3-month follow-up.

RESULTS: Both groups showed similar reductions in depression. However, MBI (vs. control) predicted greater reductions in IL-6 and TNF-α; changes in IL-6 were sustained at 3-month follow-up. Higher baseline depressive symptoms predicted greater reductions in inflammation in the mindfulness group.

CONCLUSION: MBIs may reduce inflammatory immune markers commonly implicated in depression. Individuals with greater depressive symptoms may benefit more from mindfulness training. Although reductions in salivary cytokines in the mindfulness condition were not attributable to changes in depressive symptoms, future work should examine the possibility that such reductions are protective against the development of future depressive episodes.

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.shsu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=911f511a-9143-4771-8f7c-e876dcfe165f%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4208

 

Relieve Test Anxiety with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“In mindfulness-based therapy, the person focuses on the bodily sensations that arise when he or she is anxious. Instead of avoiding or withdrawing from these feelings, he or she remains present and fully experiences the symptoms of anxiety. Instead of avoiding distressing thoughts, he or she opens up to them in an effort to realize and acknowledge that they are not literally true. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, fully realizing the experience of anxiety enables anxious people to release their over identification with negative thoughts. The person practices responding to disruptive thoughts, and letting these thoughts go.” – George Hofmann

 

It’s a normal human response to become anxious while being evaluated by others. In fact, the vast majority of students report that the stress and anxiety associated with being evaluated is greater than that produced by anything else in their lives. The majority of students are able to cope with the anxiety and perform on tests in spite of it. But, for a minority of students, somewhere around 16%-20%, the anxiety level is so high that it causes them to “freeze” on tests and markedly impair their performance. It is estimated that they perform 12 points lower, more than one letter grade, on average than students lower in anxiety. Counselling centers in colleges and universities report that evaluation anxiety is the most common complaint that they treat among students.

 

It has been demonstrated repeatedly that mindfulness counteracts anxiety and mindfulness training is an effective treatment for a variety of forms of anxiety. In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Academic Evaluation Anxiety: A Naturalistic Longitudinal Study.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1267815219909068/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4867855/

Dundas and colleagues examine the effectiveness of an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program for the treatment of test anxiety in college students. MBSR involves training in three mindfulness practices; meditation, body scan, and yoga. Students were tested for anxiety levels, self-esteem, and self-efficacy before, during, and after MBSR training and before their first test after training and later follow-up. The students’ anxiety levels were compared to a group of untreated students.

 

They found significant improvements with moderate effect sizes in evaluation, state, and trait anxiety levels, self-esteem, and self-efficacy following MBSR treatment. The students showed improvements in both the cognitive and emotional components of evaluation anxiety. The improvement in anxiety levels continued following the end of treatment such that at the long-term follow-up point, as much as two years later, evaluation anxiety levels were significantly lower than they were after the completion of treatment. Hence, MBSR treatment significantly reduced evaluation anxiety and improved self-esteem and self-efficacy in college students and the students continued improving afterwards.

 

These are impressive results. But, given the demonstrated efficacy of MBSR for the treatment of anxiety and the reduction of stress, they are not surprising. Mindfulness training and MBSR in particular have been shown to significantly reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. A reduction in the students’ responses to the stress of evaluation should reduce anxiety. Since this would be expected, in turn, to improve performance, this may result in further improvement as confidence levels rise. The fact that the students reported improved self-efficacy after MBSR supports the idea that they also improved in confidence. So, mindfulness treatment might well produce an upward spiral of improved anxiety levels and performance.

 

So, relieve test anxiety with mindfulness.

 

“”Mindfulness also allows us to become more aware of the stream of thoughts and feelings that we experience and to see how we can become entangled in that stream in ways that are not helpful. Most of us have issues that we find hard to let go and mindfulness can help us deal with them more productively. We can ask: ‘Is trying to solve this by brooding about it helpful, or am I just getting caught up in my thoughts?’” – Marc Williams

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are aalso available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Dundas, I., Thorsheim, T., Hjeltnes, A., & Binder, P. E. (2016). Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for Academic Evaluation Anxiety: A Naturalistic Longitudinal Study. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 30(2), 114–131. http://doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2016.1140988

 

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) for academic evaluation anxiety and self-confidence in 70 help-seeking bachelor’s and master’s students was examined. A repeated measures analysis of covariance on the 46 students who completed pretreatment and posttreatment measures (median age = 24 years, 83% women) showed that evaluation anxiety and self-confidence improved. A growth curve analysis with all 70 original participants showed reductions in both cognitive and emotional components of evaluation anxiety, and that reduction continued postintervention. Although more research is needed, this study indicates that MBSR may reduce evaluation anxiety.

 

Improve Reading with Dyslexia and ADHD with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindfulness has its roots in meditation and blends numerous approaches such as yoga. Meditation enables the individual to reprocess internal experiences with more awareness, neutrality and acceptance. It focuses on the breath to develop concentration and take control of attention. This is particularly helpful for people with specific learning difficulties who often report difficulties with concentration and attention.”

 

Reading skills have always been important but in the modern world they are essential. So, difficulties with reading can be a major obstacle in school, work, and life in general. Unfortunately, difficulties with reading are all too common. It has been estimated that 20% of the children in school struggle with reading. There are a number of problems that are responsible for these struggles, but the most common ones are dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

 

Dyslexia is the most common form of language based disability. It literally means “poor language” and affects around 15% of the population. “Dyslexia is a neurological learning disability, characterized by difficulties with word recognition, by poor spelling, and limited decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.” – (International Dyslexia Association)

 

ADHD, on the other hand, also produces reading difficulties but in an entirely different way. It is a brain disorder marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development. About 6% of school aged children exhibit ADHD with about 25% of these students have other serious learning problems with oral expression, listening skills, reading comprehension, and/or math and about 50% have listening comprehension problems. Hence, ADHD appears to affect reading primarily by inattention and impulsivity.

 

Mindfulness training may be helpful with the reading problems of children with dyslexia and ADHD. It has been shown to affect many of the symptoms of these disorders, improving attention and cognitive processes, reducing impulsivity, and generally improving ADHD symptoms. So, it would be expected that mindfulness training might be helpful with the reading problems of students with dyslexia and ADHD. In today’s Research News article “Mindful Reading: Mindfulness Meditation Helps Keep Readers with Dyslexia and ADHD on the Lexical Track.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1266348443389079/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4862243/

Tarrasch and colleagues recruited adult college students with either dyslexia or ADHD and measured their reading, attention, mindfulness, emotional well-being, and sleep disturbance. They were then provided with an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program which involves meditation, body scan, and yoga practices. They were re-measured at the conclusion of MBSR training.

 

They found that following the MBSR training there was a 19% decrease in reading errors and a significant improvement in sustained attention. There was an increase in lexical reading, indicating a greater reliance after MBSR on previously learned words and a reduction in reliance on phonetic reading, sounding out words. They also found significant decreases in impulsivity, perceived-stress, rumination, depression, state-anxiety, and sleep-disturbances and an increase in mindfulness. In addition, they found that the greater the increase in mindfulness the greater the improvement in reading and the greater the decrease in impulsivity the greater the improvement in reading.

 

Hence it appears that MBSR training improves reading, emotional well-being, and sleep disturbance in students. It appears that the training improves mindfulness which improves attention and reduces impulsivity and these in turn, improve reading. These are exciting results that mindfulness training can be of assistance with dyslexia and ADHD produced reading problems in college students. This suggests that mindfulness training earlier in schools may not only help students overall, but also help students with dyslexia and ADHD in their academic progress. This is a ripe area for future research.

 

So, improve reading with dyslexia and ADHD with mindfulness.

 

“Mindfulness is a skill that allows one to be less reactionary. Its primary force is teaching self regulation. Mindfulness (meditation) is a way of paying attention, “bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis”. This skill gives the person with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) tools for moment to moment self regulation of emotional, cognitive and behavior responses, essential for effective Executive Functioning.” – Ann Farris

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Tarrasch, R., Berman, Z., & Friedmann, N. (2016). Mindful Reading: Mindfulness Meditation Helps Keep Readers with Dyslexia and ADHD on the Lexical Track. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 578. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00578

 

Abstract

This study explored the effects of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention on reading, attention, and psychological well-being among people with developmental dyslexia and/or attention deficits. Various types of dyslexia exist, characterized by different error types. We examined a question that has not been tested so far: which types of errors (and dyslexias) are affected by MBSR training. To do so, we tested, using an extensive battery of reading tests, whether each participant had dyslexia, and which errors types s/he makes, and then compared the rate of each error type before and after the MBSR workshop. We used a similar approach to attention disorders: we evaluated the participants’ sustained, selective, executive, and orienting of attention to assess whether they had attention-disorders, and if so, which functions were impaired. We then evaluated the effect of MBSR on each of the attention functions. Psychological measures including mindfulness, stress, reflection and rumination, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and sleep-disturbances were also evaluated. Nineteen Hebrew-readers completed a 2-month mindfulness workshop. The results showed that whereas reading errors of letter-migrations within and between words and vowelletter errors did not decrease following the workshop, most participants made fewer reading errors in general following the workshop, with a significant reduction of 19% from their original number of errors. This decrease mainly resulted from a decrease in errors that occur due to reading via the sublexical rather than the lexical route. It seems, therefore, that mindfulness helped reading by keeping the readers on the lexical route. This improvement in reading probably resulted from improved sustained attention: the reduction in sublexical reading was significant for the dyslexic participants who also had attention deficits, and there were significant correlations between reduced reading errors and decreases in impulsivity. Following the meditation workshop, the rate of commission errors decreased, indicating decreased impulsivity, and the variation in RTs in the CPT task decreased, indicating improved sustained attention. Significant improvements were obtained in participants’ mindfulness, perceived-stress, rumination, depression, state-anxiety, and sleep-disturbances. Correlations were also obtained between reading improvement and increased mindfulness following the workshop. Thus, whereas mindfulness training did not affect specific types of errors and did not improve dyslexia, it did affect the reading of adults with developmental dyslexia and ADHD, by helping them to stay on the straight path of the lexical route while reading. Thus, the reading improvement induced by mindfulness sheds light on the intricate relation between attention and reading. Mindfulness reduced impulsivity and improved sustained attention, and this, in turn, improved reading of adults with developmental dyslexia and ADHD, by helping them to read via the straight path of the lexical route.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4862243/

 

Relieve Depression with Mindfulness and Spirituality

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindfulness is a valuable practice for improving the cognitive symptoms of depression, such as distorted thinking and distractibility. It helps individuals recognize these more subtle symptoms, realize that thoughts are not facts and refocus their attention to the present” –  Margarita Tartakovsky

 

Depression is epidemic. Major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. Depression is more prevalent in women than in men. It also affects children with one in 33 children and one in eight adolescents having clinical depression. It is so serious that it can be fatal as about 2/3 of suicides are caused by depression. It makes lives miserable, not only the patients but also associates and loved ones, interferes with the conduct of normal everyday activities, and can come back repeatedly. Even after complete remission, 42% have a reoccurrence.

 

The first line treatment is antidepressant drugs. But, depression can be difficult to treat. Of patients treated initially with drugs only about a third attained remission and even after repeated and varied treatments including drugs, therapy, exercise etc. only about two thirds of patients attain remission. This leaves a third of all patients treated still in deep depression. These patients are deemed to have treatment-resistant depression. Being depressed and not responding to treatment is a terribly difficult situation. The patients are suffering and nothing appears to work to relieve their intense depression. Suicide becomes a real possibility. So, it is imperative that other treatments be identified that can be applied when the typical treatments fail.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to be effective for depression alone or in combination with drug therapy. Although there are a number of mindfulness treatments that are effective, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has been found to be effective for a myriad of physical and psychological problems including depression. MBSR, like all mindfulness trainings has physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual components and spirituality has been shown to be associated with reduced depression. But, MBSR is even more complex as it contains yoga and body scan in addition to meditation. Because of the complexity and the variety of effects of these practices it is difficult to know which components are effective in promoting well-being and which are not.

 

In today’s Research News article “Decreased Symptoms of Depression After Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Potential Moderating Effects of Religiosity, Spirituality, Trait Mindfulness, Sex, and Age”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1263767500313840/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4365440/

Greeson and colleagues investigate the influences of the mindfulness and spiritual aspects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on depression in adults. Participants completed measurement scales of anxiety, depression, mindfulness, spirituality, and religious participation both before and after 8-weeks of MBSR training. They found, as has been previously demonstrated, that following MBSR training depression was significantly reduced. They also found that the higher the level of mindfulness after treatment the lower the level of depression. This was also true for the levels of spirituality, the higher they were the lower the depression. Finally, they employed a sophisticated statistical procedure, Hierarchical multiple regression analysis, to demonstrate that mindfulness and spirituality act independently to reduce depression.

 

These findings are interesting and suggest that the complex and multifaceted Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program reduces depression both by increasing mindfulness and by increasing spirituality. Since there is no training in spirituality or direct effort to influence spirituality in MBSR training, it would appear to be an indirect effect of MBSR. The results suggest that it is not the result of increased mindfulness, but arises nonetheless as an added bonus of the training. MBSR is an outgrowth of ancient practices of meditation, yoga, and body scan that were initially employed for spiritual purposes. So, I guess that it should come as no surprise that even when employed in a secular practice, that they still increase spirituality. It should also come as no surprise that spirituality would be associated with reduced depression as spirituality gives meaning and purpose to life which is incompatible with depression.

 

So, relieve depression with mindfulness and spirituality.

 

“Meditation has penetrated our culture in a way that would have been inconceivable 20 years ago when I started to investigate it [as a potential treatment] for mood disorders. It resonates with people’s desires to find a way of slowing down and returning to an inner psychological reality that is not as easily perturbed.” – Zindel Segal

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

Improve Romantic Relationships with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“We are vulnerable creatures, we humans. In the act of exposing our heart and hopes, we also expose our fears and fragility. But we need not be slaves to the past, or to the external love object, be it bear or spouse. We can deliberately develop a more secure sense of attachment, training our mind to become a place of security, safety, and warm fuzzy reassurance simply by paying attention to now, not then.” – Cheryl Fraser

 

The great sage Thich Nhat Hahn stated that “If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence.” This is a beautiful thought that applies to all loving relationships and suggests that we should be in the present moment and completely attentive to our loved ones when we are with them. When any two people interact paying real-time attention to the other is rare. Most of the time, the individual’s mind is elsewhere, perhaps thinking of the next thing to be said, perhaps thinking about what the individual wants from the other, or perhaps reviewing a past interaction. We are all so into ourselves that we fail to truly pay complete attention to the other, even a loved one. But, if we do, it has a major impact.

 

Being present for another implies that we are being mindful, paying attention non-judgmentally, to what is transpiring in the present moment. To our partner this conveys a caring and respect that is a true reflection of love. Our partner will generally respond very positively to this mindful attention, amplifying the moment and building the emotional connection that is the glue of a romantic relationship. Indeed, mindful individuals are rated as more attractive and mindfulness training appears to help with sexual difficulties. So, mindfulness should be related to relationship quality, both for the individual and the romantic partner.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindful Mates: A Pilot Study of the Relational Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Participants and Their Partners.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1263164117040845/?type=3&theater

or below.

Khaddouma and colleagues examined the relationship between mindfulness and romantic relationships and the effect of increasing mindfulness in one individual on both partners. They recruited adult heterosexual couples who were in a committed relationship (80% married), ranging in age from 18 to 64. One member of each pair received training for 8-weeks in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program while the other did not. MBSR involves training in meditation, body scan and yoga.  Couples were measured for mindfulness and relationship satisfaction, both before and after MBSR training.

 

They found that MBSR training significantly increased mindfulness and relationship satisfaction in the MBSR enrolled participants but not their non-enrolled partners. All facets of mindfulness increased including, observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reacting. They also found that the greater the increase in the acting with awareness mindfulness facet of the enrolled participant the greater the increase in relationship satisfaction for both members of the couple. In addition, the greater the increase in the non-reacting mindfulness facet of the enrolled participant the greater the increase in relationship satisfaction of their non-enrolled partner.

 

These results are very promising and suggest that Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training improves mindfulness and relationship satisfaction in the participant. Significantly, the MBSR training and its effects on the participant appeared to spill over and effect their romantic partner’s satisfaction with the relationship, particularly as a result of increases in acting with awareness and non-reactivity. Acting with awareness appears to be the most highly related to improvements in relationship satisfaction for both members of the dyad, while non-reactivity also affects the non-enrolled partner.

 

This suggests that “increases in abilities to attend to activities of the moment with purposeful attention (rather than behaving reflexively or automatically) over the course of MBSR are positively associated with increases in both partners’ relationship satisfaction.” In addition, the enrolled participant’s “ability to avoid getting caught up and carried away by thoughts and feelings” appears to make the relationship better for the partner. So, MBSR training changes the mindfulness of the participants, changing how they act and react in the relationship and this improves the relationship for both members. Being mindful makes romantic relationships better.

 

So, improve romantic relationships with mindfulness.

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

“If, in the midst of a fight with your partner, you can label your angry thoughts and hurt feelings as “just my rejection script,” or if you can notice your blood pressure rising and your face getting redder, then you have a greater degree of choice about how to behave. Rather than feeling compelled to scream and attack or vigorously defend your position, you can instead choose to take a break, connect with your love for your partner, or try to understand his/her point of view.  As a result, you should have reduced stress and more loving, connected relationships.” – Melanie Greenberg

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Khaddouma, A., Coop Gordon, K. and Strand, E. B. (2016), Mindful Mates: A Pilot Study of the Relational Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Participants and Their Partners. Family Process. doi: 10.1111/famp.12226

 

Abstract

Very little is currently known about how increases in dispositional mindfulness through mindfulness training affect the quality of participants’ romantic relationships, and no previous studies have examined how increases in specific facets of mindfulness differentially contribute to relationship health. Additionally, even less is known about how an individual’s development of mindfulness skills affects the relationship satisfaction of his or her romantic partner. Thus, the purpose of this pilot study was to examine associations between changes in facets of mindfulness and relationship satisfaction among participants enrolled in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and their nonenrolled romantic partners. Twenty MBSR participants and their nonenrolled partners (n = 40) completed measures of mindfulness and relationship satisfaction pre- and post-enrolled partners’ completion of an MBSR course. Results indicated that enrolled participants significantly improved on all facets of mindfulness and relationship satisfaction, while nonenrolled partners did not significantly increase on any facet of mindfulness or relationship satisfaction. Moreover, enrolled participants’ increases in Acting with Awareness were positively associated with increases in their own and their nonenrolled partners’ relationship satisfaction, whereas increases in enrolled participants’ Nonreactivity were positively associated with increases in their nonenrolled partners’ (but not their own) relationship satisfaction. These results suggest that increasing levels of mindfulness (particularly specific aspects of mindfulness) may have positive effects on couples’ relationship satisfaction and highlight mindfulness training as a promising tool for education and intervention efforts aimed at promoting relational health.

 

Students AND Teachers Benefit from Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Beyond helping his students, Gonzalez also thinks mindfulness helps him to cope with the strains of teaching. He believes he now draws clearer lines in his relationships with students—giving them the skills to help themselves, rather than feeling that he needs to be the one to heal them—and copes more healthily with the trauma the job exposes him to, whether directly (in a previous teaching job, he said a student once stumbled into his office bleeding from a stab wound) or indirectly through working with a grieving student.” – Lauren Cassani Davis

 

Today’s schools are replete with stress, anxiety, and worry. Standardized, high stakes testing now dominates education in the U.S. This creates an environment in which both teachers and students are under pressure to perform well on the tests. Teachers, for the most part are confronted with large classes and in some areas, very unruly classes, creating even more stress on teachers. Students often have to confront bullies, creating fear while at school and parental pressure for grades. In this kind of environment, it is difficult to enjoy learning and function at a high level.

 

Mindfulness training has been applied to this environment in an attempt to help mitigate the stresses and make students and teachers happier and more productive. It has been shown to reduce stress and improve high level thinking and performance in schools from grammar schools to college. The research, however, has focused on either the students in school or the teachers and there has been no research investigating the consequences of simultaneous mindfulness training for both. In today’s Research News article “Students and Teachers Benefit from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in a School-Embedded Pilot Study.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1261711913852732/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4845593/

Gouda and colleagues provided a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program separately to both the students and the teachers in the 11th grade during the first term of a single school in Germany. MBSR is an 8-week program with training in meditation, body scan, and yoga. Half the students and teachers were assigned to a wait-list control group that did not receive the MBSR training. Measurements were taken at the beginning and end of the school term and four months later of mindfulness, stress, anxiety, test anxiety, depression, self-efficacy, self-regulation, emotion regulation, interpersonal competences, openness, creativity, and work engagement.

 

They found that the students in the MBSR group had lower stress, anxiety, test anxiety, and interpersonal problems and higher levels of mindfulness, self-regulation, school-related self-efficacy, and emotional competencies. Many of these variables continued to improve and were even higher at follow up at the end of the second semester while the remaining variables held their gains.  Hence the students who received MBSR training significantly benefited, improving psychological and emotional competencies and decreasing stress and anxiety.

 

At the same time, the teachers also benefited. Gouda and colleagues found that the teachers who received the MBSR training had significantly improved levels of mindfulness, teacher-specific self-efficacy and emotion regulation and reduced levels of interpersonal problems. These benefits were still present at follow-up. Hence the teachers who received MBSR training significantly benefited, improving mindfulness and emotions and reducing interpersonal problems.

 

The study results are important in that they demonstrate that mindfulness training benefits both teachers and students in the same school at the same time. They did not have the appropriate comparisons to assess whether training teachers and students at the same time amplifies the positive effects for each. That’s an interesting question for future research. But, at least it is clear that there’s no interference produced. In addition, although academic achievement was not measured, all of the benefits of the mindfulness training would be expected to assist both the students and their teachers in being more effective both inside and outside of the classroom, improving their social behavior and mental health.

 

These results further strengthen the case for increased implementation of mindfulness programs in schools as both students and teachers benefit from mindfulness training.

 

“Before we can share mindfulness with our students we need an experiential understanding of mindfulness from our own practice. Once we begin to develop our own practice, we will see how it impacts our classroom and our relationships with others. Mindfulness offers a way to tap into the resilience that is already inside us.” – Meena Srinivasan

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Gouda, S., Luong, M. T., Schmidt, S., & Bauer, J. (2016). Students and Teachers Benefit from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in a School-Embedded Pilot Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 590. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00590

 

Abstract

Objective: There is a research gap in studies that evaluate the effectiveness of a school-embedded mindfulness-based intervention for both students and teachers. To address this gap, the present pilot study reviews relevant literature and investigates whether students and teachers who participate in separate Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses show improvements across a variety of psychological variables including areas of mental health and creativity.

Methods: The study applied a controlled waitlist design with three measurement points. A total of 29 students (n = 15 in the intervention and n = 14 in the waitlist group) and 29 teachers (n = 14 in the intervention and n = 15 in the waitlist group) completed questionnaires before and after the MBSR course. The intervention group was also assessed after a 4-month follow-up period.

Results: Relative to the control group, significant improvements in self-reported stress, self-regulation, school-specific self-efficacy and interpersonal problems were found among the students who participated in the MBSR course (p < 0.05, Cohens’ d ranges from 0.62 to 0.68). Medium effect sizes on mindfulness, anxiety and creativity indicate a realistic potential in those areas. By contrast, teachers in the intervention group showed significantly higher self-reported mindfulness levels and reduced interpersonal problems compared to the control group (p < 0.05, Cohens’ d = 0.66 and 0.42, respectively), with medium effect sizes on anxiety and emotion regulation.

Conclusion: The present findings contribute to a growing body of studies investigating mindfulness in schools by discussing the similarities and differences in the effects of MBSR on students and teachers as well as stressing the importance of investigating interpersonal effects.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4845593/

 

Reduce Stress Responses in a High Stress Occupation.

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“I am a registered nurse in an emergency department. Nowhere is Buddhism more helpful to me than at work. We see a large number of patients, often accompanied by their family members. Emotional turmoil is the norm. This, along with the unavoidable hustle and bustle of the department, makes for a frenzied atmosphere. My practice helps create a tiny refuge of peace in the midst of the turmoil.” – Daniel Defeo

 

Stress is epidemic in the western workplace with almost two thirds of workers reporting high levels of stress at work. In high stress occupations burnout is all too prevalent. This is the fatigue, cynicism, and professional inefficacy that comes with work-related stress. Healthcare is a high stress occupation. In a recent survey 46% of all physicians responded that they had burnout. Currently, over a third of healthcare workers report that they are looking for a new job. Nearly half plan to look for a new job over the next two years and 80% expressed interest in a new position if they came across the right opportunity. Since there is such a great need to retain healthcare providers, it is imperative that strategies be identified to decrease stress and burnout.

 

Emergency and intensive care medicine is at the top of the list of stressful medical professions. It also leads in the incidence of burnout with over half experiencing it. Burnout is a threat to the healthcare providers and their patients. In fact, it is a threat to the entire healthcare system as it contributes to the shortage of doctors and nurses. Hence, preventing existing healthcare workers from burning out has to be a priority. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to be helpful in treating and preventing burnout. One of the premiere techniques for developing mindfulness and dealing effectively with stress is Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is a diverse mindfulness training containing practice in meditation, body scan, and yoga. There have been a number of trials investigating the application of MBSR to the treatment and prevention of health care worker burnout with successful outcomes.

 

In today’s Research News article “A Small Randomized Pilot Study of a Workplace Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Surgical Intensive Care Unit Personnel: Effects on Salivary α-Amylase Levels.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1252171248140132/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624325/

Duchemin and colleagues examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness based stress reduction program, including meditation, gentle yoga, and relaxing music, on mindfulness, psychological and biological (salivary α-amylase) markers of stress, burnout, and professional quality of life. They recruited hospital intensive care health professionals who were not current mindfulness practitioners. The participants were then randomly assigned to the mindfulness training group or to a wait-list control group. After completing the battery of tests they were then either provided an 8-wk mindfulness intervention or carried on their normal routines for 8 weeks. This was followed one week later by a repeat assessment battery.

 

They found that the participants’ perceived stress of the work environment did not change over the course of the study, but the psychological and emotional responses to the stress did, with the mindfulness group showing a significant, 25% reduction, compared to 13% reduction for the controls. In addition, the mindfulness group had a significant, 40%, decline in salivary α-amylase compared to 4% for the controls, indicating a significant reduction in the biological response to the stress. Hence, the mindfulness training produced a significant reduction in the ICU workers biological, psychological, and emotional responses to stress.

 

This is an important outcome. Obviously, training does not change how stressful the work is. But, it did change the workers’ responses to the stress, making them more resistant to the effects of the stress. This is in keeping with a large number of studies demonstrating that mindfulness training decreases the physiological and psychological responses to stress. The deleterious effects of stress on the individual occur due to the individual’s response to the stress, not the stress itself. So, the mindfulness training tends to assist with the core of the problem. The study was not long-term enough to tell if this would reduce burnout. But, given the short-term effects of the intervention, it would be expected that it would.

 

So, reduce stress responses in a high stress occupation.

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

“Letting go is a huge quality and practice of mindfulness. Everything changes and everything ends. You have to be able to let that go so that you can take care of other people, sleep at night, and not burn out. It’s easy to be mindful, it’s just hard to remember to be mindful. The trick is practice until you do it.” – Diane Sieg

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Duchemin, A.-M., Steinberg, B. A., Marks, D. R., Vanover, K., & Klatt, M. (2015). A Small Randomized Pilot Study of a Workplace Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Surgical Intensive Care Unit Personnel: Effects on Salivary α-Amylase Levels. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine / American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57(4), 393–399. http://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000371

 

Abstract

Objective: To determine if a workplace stress-reduction intervention decreases reactivity to stress among personnel exposed to a highly stressful occupational environment.

Methods: Personnel from a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) were randomized to a stress reduction intervention or a wait-list control group. The 8-week group mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) included mindfulness, gentle yoga and music. Psychological and biological markers of stress were measured one week before and one week after the intervention.

Results: Levels of salivary α-amylase, an index of sympathetic activation, were significantly decreased between the 1st and 2nd assessments in the intervention group with no changes in the control group. There was a positive correlation between salivary α-amylase levels and burnout scores.

Conclusions: These data suggest that this type of intervention could not only decrease reactivity to stress, but also decrease the risk of burnout.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624325/

 

Tone Down the Ringing in the Ears with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindful meditation helped me to think (and not think) about tinnitus in ways that had not occurred before, and in doing so made tinnitus much less of a burden to carry. It did not fix my tinnitus but it fixed me in a way that made tinnitus easier to bear. I now feel as if I live in the same universe as everybody else. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” – Claire Bartlett

 

Tinnitus is one of the most common symptoms to affect humanity. People with tinnitus live with a phantom noise that can range from a low hiss or ringing to a loud roar or squeal which can be present constantly or intermittently. It can have a significant impact on people’s ability to hear, concentrate, or even participate in everyday activities. Tinnitus is not a disease itself; it is a symptom that something is wrong in the auditory system. The vast majority of people with tinnitus have what is known as subjective tinnitus. This is caused by unknown problems somewhere in the auditory system; the inner, middle, or outer ear, the part of the brain that translates nerve signals as sounds, or the auditory nerves.

 

Approximately 25 million to 50 million people in the United States experience it to some degree. Tinnitus and hearing loss are the top service-related disabilities among veterans; 60 percent of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan return home with hearing loss. Approximately 16 million people seek medical attention for their tinnitus, and for up to two million patients, debilitating tinnitus interferes with their daily lives. Tinnitus is sometimes the first sign of hearing loss, occurring in roughly 90 percent of tinnitus cases. There are a number of treatments for tinnitus including, counseling, sound therapy, drugs, and even brain stimulation. Unfortunately, none of these treatments is very effective. Hence there is a need for safe and effective alternative treatments for tinnitus.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy On Subjective Bother and Neural Connectivity in Chronic Tinnitus.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1250875274936396/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4650869/

Roland and colleagues investigate Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training as a treatment for tinnitus. MBSR is an 8-week program that includes meditation, yoga, and body scan techniques. There are once a week 2-hour meetings and daily home practice. They recruited adult tinnitus sufferers, measured symptoms and scanned their brains with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for brain structure and functional connectivity. Subsequently they received MBSR training followed by tinnitus measurements and MRI scanning.

 

They found a clinically significant decrease in both tinnitus symptoms and the degree of handicap produced by tinnitus after MBSR that was maintained at a one month follow up examination. They also found that after MBSR training there was increased functional connectivity with the prefrontal and operculum cortexes which are known to be associated with attention mechanisms, but no change in the default mode network that is associated with mind wandering and self-referential thoughts. These connectivity results make sense as MBSR is targeted at improving attention to the body and the present moment.

 

These results are very exciting as they suggest that Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training may be a safe and effective treatment for tinnitus. The symptom improvements were substantial and over 60% of the tinnitus sufferers had clinically significant improvements. They further suggest that MBSR may improve tinnitus symptoms by increasing the effectiveness of brain attentional networks. It is possible that, by improving attention to the present moment, MBSR results in less attention being paid to the tinnitus, reducing its impact.

 

It should be kept in mind, however, that this was a pilot study without a control group. Hence the conclusions must be tempered with caution until a definitive randomized controlled trial can be conducted. The results are encouraging enough that such a trial is warranted.

 

Nevertheless, tone down the ringing in the ears with mindfulness.

 

“participants commented that tinnitus no longer seemed like a dreadful curse; it was just another sensation that could be annoying but was not insurmountable.” – Jennifer Gans

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Roland, L. T., Lenze, E. J., Hardin, F. M., Kallogjeri, D., Nicklaus, J., Wineland, A., … Piccirillo, J. F. (2015). Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Therapy On Subjective Bother And Neural Connectivity In Chronic Tinnitus. Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery : Official Journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 152(5), 919–926. http://doi.org/10.1177/0194599815571556

 

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of an MBSR program in patients with chronic bothersome tinnitus on the 1) severity of symptoms of tinnitus and 2) functional connectivity in neural attention networks.

Study Design

Open-label interventional pilot study.

Setting: Outpatient academic medical center.

Subjects: A total of 13 adult participants with a median age of 55 years, suffering from bothersome tinnitus.

Methods: An 8-week MBSR program was conducted by a trained MBSR instructor. The primary outcome measure was the difference in patient-reported tinnitus symptoms using the Tinnitus Handicap Index (THI) andTinnitus Functional Index (TFI) between pre-intervention, post-MBSR, and 4-week post-MBSR assessments. Secondary outcomes included change in measurements of depression, anxiety, mindfulness and cognitive abilities. Functional connectivity MRI was performed at pre- and post- MBSR intervention time points to serve as a neuroimaging biomarker of critical cortical networks.

Results: Scores on the THI and TFI showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement over the course of the study with a median ΔTHI of −16 and median ΔTFI of −14.8 between baseline and 4-week follow-up scores. Except for depression, there was no significant change in any of the secondary outcome measures. Analysis of the rs-fcMRI data showed increased connectivity in the post-MBSR group in attention networks but not the default network.

Conclusion: Participation in an MBSR program is associated with decreased severity in tinnitus symptoms and depression, and connectivity changes in neural attention networks. MBSR is a promising treatment option for chronic bothersome tinnitus that is both noninvasive and inexpensive.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4650869/

 

Improve PTSD with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Very often, depression can be about the past, ruminating over and over about losses or other terrible things that happened in the past. Anxiety, meanwhile, very often involves ruminating about terrible things that you’re afraid are going to happen in the future. But in the present, very often, there’s actually nothing terrible going on, and the act of recognizing that can be helpful.” – Anthony King

 

Experiencing trauma is quite common. It has been estimated that 60% of men and 50% of women will experience a significant traumatic event during their lifetime. But, only a fraction will develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But this still results in a frightening number of people with 7%-8% of the population developing PTSD at some point in their life. For military personnel it’s much more likely for PTSD to develop with about 11%-20% of those who have served in a war zone developing PTSD.

 

PTSD involves a number of troubling symptoms including reliving the event with the same fear and horror in nightmares or with a flashback (Experiencing). PTSD sufferers avoid situations that remind them of the event this may include crowds, driving, movies, etc. and may avoid seeking help because it keeps them from having to think or talk about the event (Avoidance). They often experience negative changes in beliefs and feelings including difficulty experiencing positive or loving feelings toward other people (Emotional Numbing), avoiding relationships, memory difficulties, or see the world as dangerous and no one can be trusted. Sufferers may feel hyperarousal, feeling keyed up and jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger (Hyperarousal). They may experience sudden anger or irritability, may have a hard time sleeping or concentrating, may be startled by a loud noise or surprise.

 

Obviously, these are troubling symptoms that need to be addressed. There are a number of therapies that have been developed to treat PTSD. One of which, mindfulness training has been found to be particularly effective. It is important to further investigate mindfulness relationships to PTSD symptoms in order to optimize treatment. In today’s Research News article “Changes in Mindfulness and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Among Veterans Enrolled in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1248873658469891/?type=3&theater

or below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27152480

Stephenson and colleagues investigated changes in mindfulness accompanying Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in veterans. They pooled the data from four trials of MBSR for PTSD, measuring changes in mindfulness, PTSD symptoms, and depression over the course of treatment.

 

They found that changes in mindfulness were highly related to improvement in PTSD symptoms and depression, with larger increases in mindfulness associated with larger improvements in all PTSD symptoms and also in depression. Two facets of mindfulness, Acting with Awareness and Non-reactivity particularly were strongly associated with improvements. On the other hand, increases in the Observing facet of mindfulness were sometimes associated with worsening symptoms, while the Describing and Non-judging facets were not significantly associated. The greatest changes in PTSD symptoms associated with mindfulness were in the Hyperarousal, followed by Emotional Numbing, Re-Experiencing, and Avoidance symptom clusters.

 

These are interesting results and help to clarify the nature of mindfulness effects on PTSD symptoms. The actual reasons for the associations are not known. But, some speculative hypotheses can be postulated. The fact that Non-reactivity was highly associated seems intuitively obvious as being overly reactive to the stimuli and events around them is a key symptom of PTSD. In addition, by Acting with Awareness the veterans are engaged in activities while they are more focused on the present moment. Hence, they would be less likely to bring in the past events, particularly traumatic events, into their present moment experience. A worsening of PTSD symptoms was associated with larger change in the Observing facet. By heightening awareness of their internal state, the veterans may become even more sensitive to their troubling emotional responses resulting in heightened anxiety and fear.

 

Regardless of these speculations, it is clear that improvements in PTSD symptoms with veterans are associated with heightened mindfulness. This further supports the application of MBSR for the treatment of PTSD in veterans. This treatment can be of great help in relieving the torment that is called PTSD, allowing the veterans to resume more normal lives.

 

So, improve PTSD with mindfulness.

 

“Part of the psychological process of PTSD often includes avoidance and suppression of painful emotions and memories, which allows symptoms of the disorder to continue,” King says. “Through the mindfulness intervention, however, we found that many of our patients were able to stop this pattern of avoidance and see an improvement in their symptoms.” – Anthony King

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

Study Summary

Stephenson, K. R., Simpson, T. L., Martinez, M. E. and Kearney, D. J. (2016), Changes in Mindfulness and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Among Veterans Enrolled in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. J. Clin. Psychol.. doi: 10.1002/jclp.22323

 

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The current study assessed associations between changes in 5 facets of mindfulness (Acting With Awareness, Observing, Describing, Non-Reactivity, and Nonjudgment) and changes in 4 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters (Re-Experiencing, Avoidance, Emotional Numbing, and Hyperarousal symptoms) among veterans participating in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

METHOD: Secondary analyses were performed with a combined data set consisting of 2 published and 2 unpublished trials of MBSR conducted at a large Veterans Affairs hospital. The combined sample included 113 veterans enrolled in MBSR who screened positive for PTSD and completed measures of mindfulness and PTSD symptoms before and after the 8-week intervention.

RESULTS: Increases in mindfulness were significantly associated with reduced PTSD symptoms. Increases in Acting With Awareness and Non-Reactivity were the facets of mindfulness most strongly and consistently associated with reduced PTSD symptoms. Increases in mindfulness were most strongly related to decreases in Hyperarousal and Emotional Numbing.

CONCLUSIONS: These results extend previous research, provide preliminary support for changes in mindfulness as a viable mechanism of treatment, and have a number of potential practical and theoretical implications.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27152480