J.Behav.Mewd. 1998, 21 6

Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medial and premedical students

Shapiro, SL; Schwatz, GE; Bonner, G

The inability to cope successfully with the enormous stress of medical education may lead to cascade of consequences at both a personal and professional level. The prestnt study examined the sort-term effect of an 8-week meditation – based stress reduction intervention on premedical and medical student using a well-controlled statistical design. Findings indicate that participation in the intervention acan effectively (I) reduce self-reported state and trait anxiety, (2) reduce reports of overall psychological distress including depression, (3) increase scores on overall empathy levels, and (4) increase scores on a measure of spiritual experiences assessed a termination of intervention. These results (5) replicated in the wait-list control group, 856) held across different experiments, and 87) were observed during the exam period. Future research should address potential long-term effects of mindfulness training for medical and premedical students.

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JAMA – J, J.Am.Med.Assoc. 1999, 282 9

Mindful practice

Epstein, R.M.

Mindful practitioners attend in a nonjudgmental way to their own physical and mental processes during ordinary, everyday tasks. This critical self -reflection enables physicians to listen attentively to patients’ distress, recognize their own errors, refine their technical skills, make evidence-based decisions, and clarify their values so that they can act with compassion, technical competence, presence and insight… Mindful practitioners use a variety of means to enhance their ability to engage in moment-to-moment self-monitoring, bring to consciousness their tacit personal knowledge and deeply held values, use peripheral vision and subsidiary awareness to become aware of new information and perspectives, and adopt curiosity in both ordinary and novel situations. In contrast, mindlessness may account for some deviations from professionalism and errors in judgment and technique. Although mindfulness cannot be taught explicitly, it can be modeled by mentors and cultivated in learners. As a link between relationship-centered care and evidence-based medicine, mindfulness should be considered a characteristic of good clinical practice.

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Psychosom.Med 2003,65 4

Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation

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.

Cogn.Affect.Behav.Neuroci, 2007, 7; 7 2

Mindfulness training modifies the subsystems of attention

Mindfulness is defined as paying attention in the present moment. We investigate the hypothesis that mindfulness training may alter or enhance specific aspects of attention. We examined there functionally and neuroanatomically distinct but overlapping attentional subsystems: alerting, orienting, and conflict monitoring.

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J.Pers.Soc.Psycholog. 2003, 84 4

The benefits of being present

Brown, KW, Ryan, RM

Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. ..both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, alclinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.

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Psychol.Bull 206;132

The Restless mind

Smallwodd, J; Schooler, JW

This article reviews the hypothesis that mind wandering can be integrated into executive models of attention. Evidence suggests that mind wandering shares many similarities with traditional notions of executive control. When mind wandering occurs, the executive components of attention appear to shift away from the primary task, leading to failures in task performance and superficial representations of external environment. One challenge for incorporating mind wandering into standard executive models is that it often occurs tin the absence of explicit intention – a hallmark of controlled processing. However, mind wandering, like other goal-related processes, can be engaged without explicit awareness, thus, mind wandering can be seen as goal driven process, albeit one that is not directed toward the primary task.

Metacognition, mindfulness and the modification of mood disorders

Teasdale, JD

A Distinction is made between metacognitive knowledge (knowing that thoughts are not necessarily always accurate) and metacognitive insight (experiencing thoughts as events in the field of a awareness, rather than as direct readouts on reality). This distinction, and its relevance to preventing relapse and recurrence in depression, is examined within the Interacting Cognitive Subsystems theoretical framework… Mindfulness training teaches skills to enter this mode (metacognitive insight mode), in whith thoughts are experienced simply as events in the mind, offers an alternative preventive strategy.

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J.Pers.Soc.Psychol. 2007, 92

Verplanken, B; Friborg, O; Wang CE; Trafimow, D; Woolf, K

Mental habits: Metacognitive reflection on negative self-thinking

… The results support the assumption that metacognitive reflection on negative self-thinking as mental habit may play an important role in self-evaluative processes.

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1. Consult.Clin.Psychol. 2002; 70 2

Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: Empirical evidence

Metacognitive awareness is a cognitive set in which negative thoughts/feelings are experienced as mental events rather than as the self. The authors hypothesized that (a) reduced metacognitivie awareness would be associated with vulnerability to depression and (b) cognitive therapy (CT) and mindfulness –based CT would reduce depressive relapse by increasing metacognitive awareness.