Mindfulness Research
The emerging research findings
To date, there are over 22,000 mindfulness studies as listed on the National Library of Medicine website. Results are promising and the research is increasing. However, it is important to keep in mind that this is an emerging area of research, with a lot more to to be studied in this area. Below are some of the studies that point to the benefits that may be gained from incorporating mindfulness into your everyday life.
Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation
Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that a short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function. These findings suggest that meditation may change brain and immune function in positive ways and underscore the need for additional research.
Conclusion: Findings revealed positive effects of the intervention on sleep quality and duration, but not on psychological detachment.
Effects of mindfulness on psychological health
Conclusion: there is a clear convergence of findings from correlational studies, clinical intervention studies, and laboratory-based, experimental studies of mindfulness—all of which suggest that mindfulness is positively associated with psychological health, and that training in mindfulness may bring about positive psychological effects. These effects ranged from increased subjective well-being, reduced psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity, to improved regulation of behavior.
Conclusion: results demonstrated that mindful individuals made more benign stress appraisals, reported less frequent use of avoidant coping strategies, and in two studies, reported higher use of approach coping. In turn, more adaptive stress responses and coping partially or fully mediated the relation between mindfulness and well-being. Implications for the role of mindfulness in stress and well-being are discussed.
Mindfulness for depression: Is mindfulness as good as antidepressants?
Conclusion: Antidepressant medication is the standard treatment for patients diagnosed with depression. But this study suggests that being mindful of our thinking patterns is just as effective.
Conclusion: Psychological resilience is more pronounced in mindful people.
Mindfulness training compared to an active control on gray matter increases
Conclusion: Findings indicate that brief mindfulness meditation induces gray matter plasticity, suggesting that structural changes in ventral PCC - a key hub associated with self-awareness, emotion, cognition, and aging - may have important implications for protecting against mood-related disorders and aging0related cognitive declines.
Conclusion: The results suggest that MBSR may have a beneficial effect on anxiety symptoms and may also improve stress reactivity and coping as measured in a laboratory stress challenge.
Conclusion: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction shows promise as an intervention for PTSD.
Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis
Conclusion: Mindfulness-Based Therapy is an effective treatment for a variety of psychological problems, and is especially effective for reducing anxiety, depression, and stress.
Conclusion: Mindfulness training produced lasting and clinically significant improvements in asthma-related quality of life and stress in patients with persistent asthma, without improvements in lung function.
Conclusion: In the largest trial to date, MBCR was superior for improving stress levels, quality of life and social support for distressed survivors of breast cancer.
Do mindfulness-based interventions reduce pain intensity? A critical review of the literature
Conclusion: Findings suggest that MBIs decrease the intensity of pain for chronic pain patients.
Sustained effects of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction intervention in type 2 diabetic patients
Conclusion: MBSR intervention achieved a prolonged reduction in psychosocial distress.
The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review
Conclusion: The results suggest that mindfulness-based therapy is a promising intervention for treating anxiety and mood problems in clinical populations.
Conclusion: Mindfulness promotes self-compassion, which leads to higher levels of happiness.
Meditation’s impact on compassionate responses to suffering
Conclusion: Meditation directly enhanced compassionate responding.
Mindfulness meditation’s impact on cognition: evidence of brief mental training
Conclusion: Findings suggest that four days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.
Conclusion: Results demonstrated that mindful individuals made more benign stress appraisals, reported less frequent use of avoidant coping strategies, and higher use of approach coping.
The effects of mindfulness on the relationships of relatively happy, nondistressed couples
Conclusion: Results suggested the intervention favourably impacted couples’ levels of relationship satisfaction, autonomy, relatedness, closeness, and acceptance of one another. It also beneficially affected individuals’ optimism, spirituality, relaxation, and psychological distress and benefits were maintained at the 3-month follow-up.