The role of acceptance in mood improvement during Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Health Workers' Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Resilience During COVID-19 Pandemic

Background

Research indicates that a significant number of healthcare workers accounted for all confirmed Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, and many of the infected healthcare workers were asymptomatic. During the COVID-19 outbreak, a considerable number of people in Taiwan contracted the disease. Therefore, health workers in Taiwan often experienced lack of medical resources, and this problem is worse for outer island areas. In terms of stress and mental health, this study investigated the effect of poor healthcare capacity and high workload on health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also explored mindfulness-based stress reduction and resilience in health workers.

Methods

This study conducted an in-depth interview to investigate stress perceived by health workers in a hospital located on an outer island of Taiwan as well as their mental health and stress relieving strategies.

Results

It was found that during the COVID-19 outbreak, some common sources of stress for health workers included exposure to infectious diseases, heavy workloads, facing ethical dilemma in clinical decision-making, and unfamiliar problems from the pandemic. These types of stress cause worries, anxiety, and depression in health workers, which affects their mental and physical health as well as their patient-care performance.

Conclusion

This study proposed that mindfulness-based stress reduction and protecting mental health are important for health workers.

The associations between interoceptive awareness, emotion regulation, acceptance, and well-being in patients receiving multicomponent treatment: a dynamic panel network model

Mechanisms of change represent the cornerstone of the therapeutic process. This study aimed to investigate how network models could be used to test mechanisms of change at a group level. A secondary aim was to investigate which of the several hypothesized mechanisms (emotion regulation, interoceptive awareness, and acceptance) are related to changes in psychological well-being. The sample comprised adult patients suffering from psychological disorders (N=444; 70% women) from 7 clinical sites in the Czech Republic who were undergoing groupbased multicomponent treatment composed mainly of psychodynamic psychotherapy (lasting from 4 to 12 weeks depending on the clinical site). Data were collected weekly using the multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness, emotion regulation skills questionnaire, chronic pain acceptance questionnaire-symptoms and outcome rating scale. A lag-1 longitudinal network model was employed for exploratory analysis of the panel data. The pruned final model demonstrated a satisfactory fit. Three networks were computed, i.e., temporal, contemporaneous, and between-person networks. The most central node was the modification of negative emotions. Mechanisms that were positively associated with well-being included modification, readiness to confront negative emotions, activity engagement, and trust in bodily signals. Acceptance of negative emotions showed a negative association with well-being. Moreover, noticing bodily sensations, not worrying, and self-regulation contributed indirectly to changes in well-being. In conclusion, the use of network methodology to model panel data helped generate novel hypotheses for future research and practice; for instance, well-being could be actively contributing to other mechanisms, not just a passive outcome.

The Efficacy of Targeted Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Improving Mental Health and Cognition Among Youth and Adults with ACE Histories: A Systematic Mixed Studies Review

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are associated with increased psychological wellbeing. The literature suggests that individuals exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may benefit greatly from MBIs. However, research has tended to focus on universal MBIs for this population with less attention on the effectiveness of targeted approaches. Moreover, there is growing concern regarding the methodological rigor of MBI research. This systematic mixed studies review (SMRS) reports the effectiveness of MBIs for improving mental health and cognition among individuals with ACE histories. Additionally, the review reports the quality and rigor of the included research. Systematic searches of PsycInfo, EMBASE, MEDLINE, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, ProQuest Social Science database and the Child Development and Adolescent Studies database were conducted. Results were screened and data were extracted then synthesized using a data-based convergent synthesis design. Thirteen studies were included in the final review. Six prominent themes emerged. Themes indicated that MBIs were effective for improving mental health and cognition for individuals with ACEs. For example, improvements in mood and anxieties, as well as a better ability to manage emotions. Shortcomings in the quality of MBI research included lack of reporting of methodological details (e.g., randomization procedures) and not systematically reporting adverse event evaluations. Recommendations are made for future research to strengthen the evidence base for MBIs for individuals with ACEs.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-022-00454-5.

Resilience and Stress as Mediators in the Relationship of Mindfulness and Happiness

The aim of the present study was to examine the mediation effects of resilience and stress, two perceived opposite constructs, in the relationship between mindfulness and happiness. Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales short version-21 were administered to 523 undergraduate university students in India. Structural Equation Modeling with bootstrapping was applied to test the mediating effects of resilience and stress. Results showed that resilience and stress partially mediated the mindfulness-happiness relationship. In addition, resilience partially mediated the relationship of mindfulness to stress. Findings suggest that mindfulness may play an influential role in enhancing happiness through the mediating effects of resilience and stress.

Online Mindfulness Experience for Emotional Support to Healthcare staff in times of Covid-19

During the first confinement in Spain, between the months of March to June 2020, Information and Communication Technologies strategies were implemented in order to support health workers in the Wellbeing of Mental Health. Faced with so much uncertainty about the pandemic, an Online Mindfulness course. The objective of the course was to support healthcare professionals in Castilla y León in managing stress, anxiety and other emotional disturbances generated by coping with a situation as uncertain and unexpected as a pandemic, in order to manage emotions and thoughts that can lead to suicidal ideation. The motivations for the demand, reasons or motivations in which the health professionals of Castilla y León decided to participate in the mindfulness course in the first wave of Covid-19 in Spain are described. The descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the customer satisfaction survey applied at the end of the mindfulness course, to the health professionals who participated in a satisfaction survey (CSQ-8: Client Satisfaction Questionnaire). Professional were asked to complete a survey based on (CSQ-8: Client Satisfaction Questionnaire) whose Cronbach's alpha = 0.917 is why the instrument used with N = 130 participants has high reliability. The 66% answered with a highly satisfied that they would return to the mindfulness online course. The 93% of the people who answered the satisfaction survey were women, of which they are professionals in the nursing area, with a participation of around 62%. In relation to the online system used in the Mindfulness intervention, 74% expressed that they fully agreed that it has been easy to use the online system for the mindfulness intervention. Health Professionals responded with 58% high satisfaction and 36% satisfaction, making a total of 94% on the help received in the online mindfulness courses to solve their problems. There is no difference between the age groups of the professionals who have preferred the Mindfulness online course (p = 0.672).

Using meditation in a control vs. acceptance context: A preliminary evaluation of relations with anxiety, depression, and indices of well-being

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Meditation practices have been marketed broadly to ameliorate human suffering. As such, individuals may seek out and use meditation to control or manage unpleasant thoughts and emotions. Emotion and thought control research suggest that meditation used in this way may potentiate unpleasant private experiences and contribute to negative outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the function or purpose guiding meditation and its relations with anxiety, depression, and other indices of well-being.

DESIGN AND METHODS

In a cross-sectional design, undergraduate meditators (N = 98) reported intentions guiding their meditation practice (i.e., experiential/emotional control or acceptance/openness) and completed an assessment battery.

RESULTS

Most participants (58.2%) indicated using meditation to manage, control, or avoid difficult experiences. Participants using meditation with control-based intentions reported greater worry, anxiety, depression, negative affect, and lower mindfulness relative to their acceptance-guided counterparts. After controlling for level of anxiety, viewing anxiety as a problem increased the likelihood of using meditation with control-based intentions. Similar relations were observed between viewing stress as a problem and the likelihood of using meditation for experiential control.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that (a) how people meditate is significantly related to psychological distress and (b) highlight the importance of evaluating intentions guiding meditative practices, particularly in individuals struggling with unpleasant emotional or psychological experiences.

Sentiment Analysis Techniques Applied to Raw-Text Data from a Csq-8 Questionnaire about Mindfulness in Times of COVID-19 to Improve Strategy Generation

The use of artificial intelligence in health care has grown quickly. In this sense, we present our work related to the application of Natural Language Processing techniques, as a tool to analyze the sentiment perception of users who answered two questions from the CSQ-8 questionnaires with raw Spanish free-text. Their responses are related to mindfulness, which is a novel technique used to control stress and anxiety caused by different factors in daily life. As such, we proposed an online course where this method was applied in order to improve the quality of life of health care professionals in COVID 19 pandemic times. We also carried out an evaluation of the satisfaction level of the participants involved, with a view to establishing strategies to improve future experiences. To automatically perform this task, we used Natural Language Processing (NLP) models such as swivel embedding, neural networks, and transfer learning, so as to classify the inputs into the following three categories: negative, neutral, and positive. Due to the limited amount of data available-86 registers for the first and 68 for the second-transfer learning techniques were required. The length of the text had no limit from the user's standpoint, and our approach attained a maximum accuracy of 93.02% and 90.53%, respectively, based on ground truth labeled by three experts. Finally, we proposed a complementary analysis, using computer graphic text representation based on word frequency, to help researchers identify relevant information about the opinions with an objective approach to sentiment. The main conclusion drawn from this work is that the application of NLP techniques in small amounts of data using transfer learning is able to obtain enough accuracy in sentiment analysis and text classification stages.