Mindfulness

Nonrandomized Open Trial of a Mindfulness- and Compassion-Based Selective Preventive Mobile Health Intervention for Forcibly Displaced People
Zohar Puris S, Yuval K, Gebremariam G, Goldberg SB, Aviad N, Baldwin SA and Bernstein A
This study tested the feasibility of Mindfulness-SOS for Refugees, a novel lay- and minimally guided mobile health mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention, that is trauma-sensitive and socio-culturally adapted for diverse forcibly displaced people.
(ALMA): Increasing Mindfulness and Social Support to Reduce Depression and Anxiety in Latina Immigrant Women
Ornelas IJ, Nelson AK, Price C, Pérez-Solorio SA, Rao D and Chan KCG
Our study sought to evaluate whether increased mindfulness and social support mediated the effect of the (ALMA) intervention on depression and anxiety among Latina immigrant women.
Mindfulness-based interventions for preventing childhood maltreatment and restoring health among survivors: a public health perspective
Joss D
This commentary on "Oman (2023) Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda" provides a public health perspective on the utilization of mindfulness meditation for preventing childhood maltreatment, building resilience, and restoring health for adults with adverse childhood experiences. A multi-level multi-sectoral framework was proposed for using mindfulness-based interventions to prevent childhood maltreatment and enhance resilience. Emerging research and theoretical foundations are also reviewed for why and how mindfulness-based interventions can be particularly beneficial for childhood maltreatment survivors.
The Mediating Role of Sexual Mindfulness on the Relationship Between Black Women's Psychological and Sexual Functioning
Malone N, Vigil KE, Palomino KA, Duroseau B and Thorpe S
This study examined the mediating role of sexual mindfulness on the relationship between indicators of Black women's psychological functioning and sexual functioning.
Trait Mindfulness and Anxiety Symptoms: The Role of Optimism and Hope
Kraines MA, Kvaka AE, Kelberer LJA and Wells TT
Nearly one third of adults in the US experience at least one anxiety disorder over the course of their lifetime. Trait mindfulness is associated with fewer symptoms of anxiety. This study examined two such factors from positive psychology that may help to explain this relationship: hope and optimism.
Enhancing Prenatal Group Medical Visits with Mindfulness Skills: A Pragmatic Trial with Latina and BIPOC Pregnant Women Experiencing Multiple Forms of Structural Inequity
Duncan LG, Zhang N, Santana T, Cook JG, Castro-Smyth L, Hutchison MS, Huynh T, Mallareddy D, Jurkiewicz L and Bardacke N
Prenatal mindfulness programs can improve mental health, yet access to and cultural and linguistic relevance of existing programs in the United States are limited for people who do not speak English and/or face major life stressors such as migration, housing instability, limited income, and racism. In response, mindfulness skills training drawn from Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) was integrated into Medicaid-covered CenteringPregnancy (CP) group prenatal healthcare, delivered in Spanish and English by certified nurse-midwives and community co-leaders, and tested in a pragmatic pilot trial.
Immediate Effects of Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy as an Adjunct to Medication for Opioid Use Disorder
Price CJ, Pike KC, Treadway A, Palmer JK and Merrill JO
The need for improve medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment outcomes can be limited by co-occurring polysubstance use, mental health, and chronic pain conditions. Interoceptive training may facilitate well-being and support medication treatment for MOUD.
Temporal dynamics and long-term effects of a mindfulness-based intervention for young adults with adverse childhood experiences
Joss D, Teicher MH and Lazar SW
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been shown to be beneficial for young adults with adverse childhood experiences (ACE), but the temporal course of the therapeutic effects is still not well understood. This study aimed to investigate MBI-induced weekly changes and long-term effects in trait mindfulness and psychological symptoms.
Parental Reflective Capacities: A Scoping Review of Mindful Parenting and Parental Reflective Functioning
Huynh T, Kerr ML, Kim CN, Fourianalistyawati E, Chang VY and Duncan LG
Two key parental reflective capacities-mindful parenting (MP) and parental reflective functioning (PRF) - have been shown to promote healthy parent-child relationships through parents' increased sensitivity and responsiveness to their children's needs in spite of parenting stressors. Despite the theoretical overlap between these two constructs, researchers have continued to examine them independently. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review was to review the overlapping and distinctive outcomes and correlates in the empirical MP and PRF literatures.
Examining the Occurrence and Clinical Impact of Difficult Experiences that Emerge during a Mindfulness-Based Intervention among Individuals at High-Risk of Suicide
Interian A, Miller R, Dave C, Latorre M, St Hill L, King A, Boschulte DR, Kline A, Siegel D, Sedita MM and Chesin MS
Experiences of difficulty (e.g., anxiety, difficult emotions) can occur during mindfulness practice. This study characterized the occurrence of such difficulties, defined as abnormal distress, dysregulation or agitation, among high suicide risk participants during a mindfulness-based intervention. The study also evaluated whether mindfulness difficulties were associated with baseline differences or poorer outcomes during follow-up.
Mindfulness and Cardiometabolic Health During Pregnancy: An Integrative Review
Lindsay KL, Guo Y and Gyllenhammer LE
Cardiometabolic health during pregnancy has potential to influence long-term chronic disease risk for both mother and offspring. Mindfulness practices have been associated with improved cardiometabolic health in non-pregnant populations. The objective was to evaluate diverse studies that explored relationships between prenatal mindfulness and maternal cardiometabolic health.
Understanding the Implementation of Informal Meditation Practice in a Smartphone-Based Intervention: A Qualitative Analysis
Xie Q, Dyer RL, Lam SU, Frye C, Dahl CJ, Quanbeck A, Nahum-Shani I, Davidson RJ and Goldberg SB
Informal practice (i.e., brief meditation practices incorporated spontaneously into daily activities) may be important for increasing the efficacy and accessibility of meditation-based interventions (MedBIs). However, the facilitators and barriers to engaging in informal practice are largely unknown. The current study aimed to investigate factors associated with the implementation of informal practice.
At-home use of app-based mindfulness for children: A randomized active-controlled trial
Treves IN, Olson HA, Ozernov-Palchik O, Li CE, Wang KL, Arechiga XM, Goldberg SB and Gabrieli JDE
School-based mindfulness interventions in children have shown benefits to child well-being. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of a remote, app-based mindfulness intervention for promoting well-being in children.
The Language of Compassion: Hospital Chaplains' Compassion Capacity Reduces Patient Depression via Other-Oriented, Inclusive Language
Mascaro JS, Palmer PK, Willson M, Ash MJ, Florian MP, Srivastava M, Sharma A, Jarrell B, Walker ER, Kaplan DM, Palitsky R, Cole SP, Grant GH and Raison CL
Although hospital chaplains play a critical role in delivering emotional and spiritual care to a broad range of both religious and non-religious patients, there is remarkably little research on the best practices or "active ingredients" of chaplain spiritual consults. Here, we examined how chaplains' compassion capacity was associated with their linguistic behavior with hospitalized inpatients, and how their language in turn related to patient outcomes.
Mental and Physical Health Impacts of Mindfulness Training for College Undergraduates: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Johnson BT, Acabchuk RL, George EA, Nardi W, Sun S, Salmoirago-Blotcher E, Scharf J and Loucks EB
Universities increasingly offer mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) to improve student health and reduce their impact on overburdened psychological services. It is critical for evidence-based policy to determine for what health outcomes mindfulness programs are effective and under what conditions. Objectives were to: (a) perform a comprehensive analysis of the effects of mindfulness interventions on physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes in college undergraduate students, and (b) examine moderators of intervention effects to identify factors that may help improve existing university mindfulness programs and guide the design of new programs.
Is Mindfulness Associated With Safer Cannabis Use? A Latent Profile Analysis of Dispositional Mindfulness Among College Students Who Use Cannabis
Carlon HA, Earnest J and Hurlocker MC
Previous research cites mindfulness as a protective factor against risky substance use, but the specific association between dispositional mindfulness (DM) and cannabis use has been inconsistent. Despite known heterogeneity of DM facets across college students, much of the prior research in this area has relied on variable-centered approaches. Only a handful of prior studies within the cannabis literature have utilized person-centered approaches, and only one has specifically examined unique profiles of dispositional mindfulness in relation to patterns of use among college students.
Meditation Practice, Mindfulness, and Pain-Related Outcomes in Mindfulness-Based Treatment for Episodic Migraine
Hunt CA, Letzen JE, Krimmel SR, Burrowes SAB, Haythornthwaite JA, Keaser M, Reid M, Finan PH and Seminowicz DA
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have emerged as promising prophylactic episodic migraine treatments. The present study investigated biopsychosocial predictors and outcomes associated with formal, daily-life meditation practice in migraine patients undergoing MBI, and whether augmented mindfulness mechanistically underlies change.
Intensive Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Frequency and Burden of Migraine: An Unblinded Single-Arm Trial
Goyal M, Haythornthwaite JA, Jain S, Peterlin BL, Mehrotra M, Levine D, Rosenberg JD, Minges M, Seminowicz DA and Ford DE
Preventing migraine headaches and improving the quality of life for patients with migraine remains a challenge. We hypothesized intensive meditation training would reduce the disease burden of migraine.
Improved Mindfulness Following Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Results from a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial with Trauma-Exposed Black Adults
Powers A, Lipschutz R, Lathan EC, Mekawi Y, Dixon HD, Bradley B, Kaslow NJ and Nugent NR
Trauma burden and resulting psychopathology disproportionately affect Black adults with limited socioeconomic resources. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a group-based intervention with promise for addressing trauma-related psychopathology that may be of value for Black adults with limited socioeconomic resources because it may be more approachable for individuals with mental health stigma or hesitancy to engage with trauma memories. Trait mindfulness and emotion dysregulation (ED) are proposed mechanisms of action in MBCT, yet how these psychological factors shift as a result of MBCT in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom treatment for Black adults remains untested.
Neurofeedback Training Facilitates Awareness and Enhances Emotional Well-being Associated with Real-World Meditation Practice: A 7-T MRI Study
Ganesan S, Van Dam NT, Kamboj SK, Tsuchiyagaito A, Sacchet MD, Misaki M, Moffat BA, Lorenzetti V and Zalesky A
Novice meditators often struggle to recognise and intentionally disengage from self-referential thought during meditation. We investigated whether personalised high-precision neurofeedback (NF) training improves volitional disengagement from self-referential thought during meditation and enhances meditation's outcomes.
Toward a Unified Model of Advanced Meditation, Human Development, Meditation Maps, and Transtradition Metaphors: Facing Impermanence, Suffering, and Death
Sparby T and Sacchet MD
While there exists a large body of research on the possibility of measuring certain aspects of human development, what might be called inner development has mostly been neglected, in particular as it pertains to advanced meditation. A central aspect of this kind of development, which we call meditative development, is associated with access to bliss, peace, wisdom, and the reduction of suffering, which have been regarded as highly desirable or even ultimate aims of human life. The potential for such development is currently being scientifically studied and developmentally mapped. While the use of maps to guide meditation during practice has been criticized, the conceptualization of a transformative process involving a metaphorical death and rebirth, or the dissolution of an old identity and the emergence of a new one, is common across various wisdom traditions. In the meditative traditions, some maps, such as the one described by Mahāsī Sayādaw, describe this process in a way that is both highly detailed and grounded in experience. Here, we propose an outline of the process of metaphorical "death and rebirth" in advanced meditation, which may form a foundation for the scientific investigation of meditative development and support a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.
Multidimensional Analysis of Twin Sets During an Intensive Week-Long Meditation Retreat: A Pilot Study
Zuniga-Hertz JP, Simpson S, Chitetti R, Hsu CF, Huang HP, Jinich-Diamant A, Chernov AV, Onton JA, Cuomo R, Dispenza J, Davis D, Christov-Moore L, Reggente N, Gu W, Kong M, Bonds JA, Maree J, Simonson TS, Ahn AC, Poirier MA, Moeller-Bertram T and Patel HH
Meditation has long been known to promote health. We utilized a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the impact of mind-body interventions on the body in a twin cohort during a week-long meditation retreat.
Ultra-Brief Breath Counting (Mindfulness) Training Abolishes Negative Affect-Induced Alcohol Motivation in Hazardous Community Drinkers
Bakou AE, Hardy L, Shuai R, Wright K and Hogarth L
Mindfulness therapy improves drinking outcomes arguably by attenuating negative mood-induced drinking, but this mechanism has not been demonstrated in hazardous community drinkers. To address this, three studies tested whether a key ingredient of mindfulness, breath counting, would attenuate the increase in motivation for alcohol produced by experimentally induced negative mood, in hazardous community drinkers.
Sleep-Based Brain Age Is Reduced in Advanced Inner Engineering Meditators
Banks JC, Hariri S, Kveraga K, Ouyang A, Gallagher K, Quadri SA, Tesh RA, Reed PU, Thomas RJ, Westover MB, Sun H and Subramaniam B
We aimed to quantify the effects of advanced meditation on brain electrical activity during sleep. This investigation addresses the need for objective neurophysiological measures of meditation's potential impact on brain aging and health.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Health Insurance Coverage: If, How, and When? An Integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT) Delphi Key Informant Analysis
Frank HE, Albanese A, Sun S, Saadeh F, Johnson BT, Elwy AR and Loucks EB
Hundreds of trials have evaluated Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), but in the United States, it is generally not covered by health insurance. Consequently, the aims were to identify the following: (1) key questions to make decisions about , , and MBSR should be covered by health insurance; (2a) barriers and (2b) facilitators to understand and resolve for MBSR to be covered by health insurance; and (3) highest priority evidence needed to inform health insurance coverage decisions.
Synchronous Smiles and Hearts: Dyadic Meditations Enhance Closeness and Prosocial Behavior in Virtual and In-Person Settings
Ludwig VU, Prieur L, Rennie SM, Beswerchij A, Weintraub D, Berry B, Wey J, Candido K and Platt ML
Social connection is crucial for well-being and health. Dyadic meditations-contemplative practices carried out by two people together-have the potential to foster connection. In the dyadic "Just-Like-Me" (JLM) meditation, two participants gaze at each other while contemplating sentences emphasizing their shared humanity. We assessed the psychological impacts of this exercise, as well as the underlying mechanisms, by comparing it to two active control conditions: mutual gazing without contemplation and solitary meditation.
Mindfulness Profiles and Substance Use Outcomes in University Students: The Role of Alcohol and Cannabis Use Motives
Folivi F, Bravo AJ and Pearson MR
The present study aimed to identify distinct profiles of mindfulness among a sample of university students in the USA who use alcohol and cannabis. Further, we examined whether these mindfulness profiles were indirectly associated with alcohol and cannabis-related outcomes via alcohol and cannabis use motives.
The Mindful Way From Information to Knowledge, to Wisdom, and to Life: Perspectives on Mindfulness (-Based Cognitive Therapy) for Higher Education
Deroche MH, Kuyken W, Uwatoko T, Imoto Y and Kusumoto R
This article explores the potential relevance of Mindfulness-Based Programs, particularly Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), to support the mission of higher education by facilitating the journey from information to knowledge, and from knowledge to wisdom. It thus addresses the problems of distractibility and superficial engagement caused by information overload and aims to prepare students for a fulfilling life. Based upon an in-depth dialogue among authors belonging to different disciplines, this conceptual synthesis integrates the various perspectives of Buddhist studies, philosophy of education, anthropology of education, clinical psychology, and psychiatry, to construct a comprehensive view of mindfulness for higher education. The structure of its argument progresses from the languishing to the flourishing of students, and from mindfulness taught in the form of interventions, to mindfulness cultivated as the very thread of learning. The article starts by reviewing the evidence regarding students' mental health and vulnerabilities, and moves to directly listening to their voices, larger aspirations, and more existential concerns. It next elaborates an epistemic and developmental model of mindful education, making creative use of T. S. Eliot's questions regarding information, knowledge, wisdom, and Life, to capture some ongoing, complex issues. MBCT's principles, formats, practices, and adaptations are then examined to envision skillful responses to these perceived challenges, with a proposal to further weave mindfulness into the constitution of higher education. Ultimately, in reference to Simone Weil, mindfulness training is conceived as guiding the "formation of attention," along the "joy of learning," to accomplish two interrelated humanistic ideals: academic excellence and human flourishing.
Mindfulness Interfused with Humor: Insights From a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Humor-Enriched Mindfulness-Based Program
Kastner CT
Both mindfulness and humor are inherently connected to well-being. Recent research found evidence for their combined effect in a joint training, the Humor-Enriched Mindfulness-Based Program (HEMBP). This study extends these findings by exploring (1) effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on different forms of humor, (2) differential effects of the HEMBP on outcomes compared to MBSR, and (3) whether the HEMBP and MBSR may alter worldviews.
Participants' Perspective on the Competence of Mindfulness-Based Interventions Teaching: Development and Validation of the Mindfulness-Based Interventions-Participants' Assessment of Teaching (MBI:PAT) Questionnaire
Montero-Marin J, Farley ER, Maloney S, Crane R, D'Alton P, Eldridge R, Giommi F, Griffith G, Hecht FM, Hinze V, Loucks EB, Strauss C, Taylor L, Baer R and Kuyken W
No participant-rated tool exists for assessing MBI teaching competence. This study aimed to develop and validate the MBI:PAT to address this limitation. The primary objective was to develop a new measure, the Mindfulness-based Interventions: Participants' Assessment of Teaching" (MBI:PAT), and to evaluate its psychometric properties across several studies using independent samples.