People who experience GAD worry chronically and have nervous physiological symptoms. MBSR is an 8-week training program that teaches mindfulness skills in order to help alleviate stress and improve general calmness.

This study randomly assigned participants to MBSR or a Stress Management Education course, used as a control. Before and after both groups had completed their training, measurements were taken to asses their levels of anxiety.

The MBSR group experienced a greater reduction in anxiety symptoms and expressed more positive self-talk at the end of the study. These results suggest that MBSR is an effective treatment for GAD.

Gene analysis was performed on 26 volunteers before training in meditative relaxation exercises, and again after 8 weeks of performing these exercises daily.

Results were very impressive: after just 8 weeks of 10-20 minutes of breathing relaxation exercises a day, the participants’ genomes had changed substantially. There was more activity in clusters of beneficial genes and less activity in harmful ones.

Specifically, cellular energy efficiency was improved; insulin production increased (meaning better bodily blood sugar control); and chomosomal cap breakdown was prevented (meaning cells would wear out and age more slowly). Even more exciting was that these changes happen within minutes of performing the meditations.

This research suggests that people who meditate regularly could have profound genetic improvements that last a long time. Just as short-term stress can have long-term consequences, so too can short-term meditation—only the outcomes are much more favourable!

If you’re interested in trying some short meditations, we have free guided audio downloads available on our Multimedia page.

The study looked at women with fibromyalgia and randomly assigned them to either an 8-week MBCT intervention or a control situation. Measurements of pain, life impact and depressive symptoms associated with fibromyalgia were taken before and after the intervention and 3 months follow-up.

Depressive symptoms and the impact of the illness were significantly reduced in the mindfulness group, while pain intensity only experienced a small drop. These results suggest that mindfulness-based interventions could be helpful for reducing some of the debilitating effects of fibromyalgia in women. Further research is needed to explore this treatment option further.

The article outlines cognitive-bahavioural therapy and relapse prevention as standard practice, and then discusses how mindfulness therapies have been shown to be very effective for a range of issues related to inmates’ mental health, like self-regulation.

Congratulations, Terra!

Participants in the mindfulness group showed significant reduction in cravings 10 hours post-intervention, while the standard psychoeducation group’s cravings continued to rise.

This study indicates that mindfulness interventions can be helpful in dealing with cravings for people attempting to quit smoking.

Students in the mindfulness group experienced a lower occurrence of distracting thoughts as well as an increase in working memory capacity and higher GRE reading comprehension scores.

This study indicates that mindfulness can be a very useful way of improving cognitive function.

image source: http://heartnewsonline.com/

A recent randomized, controlled study of people with coronary heart disease compared the effects of a meditation intervention with the effects of a health education program on long-term health outcomes.

201 black men and women (who have disproportionately higher rates of heart disease than white men and women) followed either a 6-week mindfulness training course (plus regular follow-up instruction sessions) or a cardiovascular health education program designed to match the format of the experimental intervention for instructional time and other possible confounding factors.

Information about the participants was collected at regular intervals each year. This information included number of hospitalizations, blood pressure, clinical events, BMI, lifestyle behaviours and mortality data, among others.

During an average follow-up of around 5 years, the meditation intervention group showed a 48% reduction in risk of mortality from all causes. The meditation group also experienced fewer heart-disease related hospitalizations and had lower blood pressure, among other benefits.

The researchers followed 96 outpatients with schizophrenia who were randomly assigned to Treatment As Usual or a Mindfulness-Based Psychoeducation program which emphasized patients’ knowledge and awareness of schizophrenia.

Compared to the Treatment As Usual group, the patients in the Mindfulness Psychoeducation program showed significantly greater improvements in understanding of their illness, symptom severity and number and length of rehospitalizations at 18 months follow-up.

The participants in this study wore heart monitors to measure their physiological activation throughout the day, and were prompted to report on their emotional and mental functioning.

Another telling finding was that higher-mindful people also experienced less mind and body activation (mind-wandering, fidgeting) before bed, suggesting that mindfulness can lead to a better night’s sleep.

The study’s results will be presented later this month at the American Psychometric Society.

-A concerned parent

Dear Concerned Parent,

I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s difficulties. It must be very hard to see a loved one go through the struggles you are describing. Although symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder often start in adolescence, we are usually very cautious about diagnosing anybody with Borderline Personality Disorder before they reach adulthood.

Nonetheless, DBT is a very effective treatment for symptoms of BPD including suicidality and self-harm, and a very effective DBT program for suicidal adolescents exists. It is slightly different from the DBT program for adults because it is more focused on involving the family in treatment.

Neither CBT nor antidepressants are usually effective in the treatment of BPD symptoms and so it does sound as if DBT treatment could be very helpful for your daughter. DBT is ideally done as an outpatient program. The research shows that inpatient treatment is not effective for symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder.

At the Mindfulness Clinic, we plan to offer a DBT program for adolescents starting this fall. Feel free to contact us if you would like to talk about whether this program may be helpful for your daughter. If you are looking for services that your daughter can access now, phone us and we will do our best to give you some information about resources that are accessible from your location.

Nathalie Lovasz, Team Leader, DBT Treatment Program, The Mindfulness Clinic