An Investigation of Mood and Executive Functioning Effects of Brief Auditory and Visual Mindfulness Meditations in Patie
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An Investigation of Mood and Executive Functioning Effects of Brief Auditory and Visual Mindfulness Meditations in Patients with Schizophrenia Tom J. Barry 1,2 & Jose V. Hernandez-Viadel 3 & Jorge J. Ricarte 4 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Brief meditations led by audio versus visual stimuli can lead to differential effects on mood and cognition in healthy people. We examine whether similar effects were evident amongst schizophrenia patients. Forty-three patients underwent either 30-min image- (e.g. a mountain stream; n = 15) or audio-led (e.g. running water; n = 15) meditations or waited 30 min without instructions (n = 13). Prior to and following the meditation/wait, participants completed a self-report measure of positive and negative affect and the Trail Making Test to measure attentional shifting abilities. Participants who underwent a visual-led meditation were significantly more positive than those who underwent an audio-led meditation or if they did not meditate. Irrespective of meditation modality, participants showed significant improvement in attentional shifting abilities. Brief meditative practice amongst patients with schizophrenia may have immediate effects on mood and cognition. Future research must explore these effects in larger mindfulness programmes and with longer follow-up assessments. Keywords Meditation . Negative affect . Attention . Working memory . Psychosis .
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* Jorge J. Ricarte [email protected]
1
Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2
Department of Psychology, The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK
3
Mental Health Service of Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain
4
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
International Journal of Cognitive Therapy
Introduction Mindfulness—a meditation-based psychotherapy involving awareness and non-judgemental acceptance of internal and external experiences—has been found to have small-to-moderate effects in the treatment of the positive and negative symptoms that are common in schizophrenia (Khoury et al. 2013a; Louise et al. 2018). Mindfulness is particularly effective at improving the negative symptoms encountered in schizophrenia (Khoury et al. 2013a) with effect sizes that are comparable with mindfulness for other psychiatric disorders (Khoury et al. 2013b) and other cognitive-behavioural psychotherapies for schizophrenia (Wykes et al. 2008). However, these effect sizes are nonetheless in the small-to-moderate range, suggesting that there is a need to improve mindfulness’ effects on the symptoms found within schizophrenia. In order to achieve this, the underlying mechanisms of mindfulness and the factors which moderate its effectiveness must be examined (Hölzel et al. 2011). To that end, studies have examined variations of mindfulness where different elements are emphasised, such as compassion towards the self (Johnson et al. 2011) or acceptance of psychotic
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