(Bellosta-Batalla et al., 2020)
Mindfulness-based interventions have been widely shown to be effective in reducing anxiety and negative moods in health professionals. Less known are the effects of mindfulness on biological markers that may correspond to these changes in mood and anxiety and may lead to enhanced empathy. A research team from Valencia, Spain recently investigated the effects of a brief mindfulness-based intervention on both mood and biological markers on a sample of health professional students.
This study separated 68 participants with no prior meditation experience into two groups. In the experimental group, participants were led through a brief series of 15-minute guided meditations that directed participants to focus their attention to their breathing, physical sensations, and mental activity. Unlike the experimental group, the control group completed emotion recognition exercises and played verbal creativity games. For both groups, researchers measured self-reported mood, anxiety levels, and collected saliva samples 10 minutes before the group sessions and again 10 minutes after the group session.
Within the saliva samples, this team of researchers analyzed the amount of salivary oxytocin, a peripheral biomarker associated with reductions of stress, anxiety, and the promotion of social bonding. In prior research studies, the intranasal administration of oxytocin has been shown to exert a positive effect on social cognition, such as increasing attention to socially relevant information, emotional accuracy, empathy, and even the development of strong therapeutic relationships. Results from prior studies examining whether mindfulness-based interventions increase salivary oxytocin are unclear and warrant further investigation.
Findings from this study revealed that the experimental group receiving the guided meditations had both lower state anxiety levels and lower negative affect compared to the control group. However, the study notes no difference in the level of positive affect between the groups. Importantly, results suggested that the experimental group receiving guided meditations had a statistically significant higher level of salivary oxytocin than the control group. The study authors suggest that the combination of improvements in self-reported mood and increased salivary oxytocin lend to a growing body of evidence that supports mindfulness-based interventions effectiveness at enhancing emotional regulation that may be associated with empathy.
“These researchers posit that mindfulness-based interventions may lead to increased emotional regulation and the upregulation of biological systems that facilitate feelings of empathy, important processes for health professionals.”
The study also notes that the effect size of mindfulness sessions on oxytocin, a metric to assess magnitude of change, was higher than previous studies examining changes in salivary oxytocin after various relaxation exercises and even skin-to-skin contact between parents and infants. These researchers posit that mindfulness-based interventions may lead to increased emotional regulation and the upregulation of biological systems that facilitate feelings of empathy, important processes for health professionals.
Although this study has notable limitations, this study offers insight into the possible mechanisms that link changes in emotional regulation to mindfulness-based practices. Future studies will have the opportunity to evaluate whether these results extrapolate to more diverse populations and with more regular mindfulness-based practices than the brief 15 minute guided mindfulness practices used within this study. Furthermore, since salivary oxytocin is a biomarker more accessible than oxytocin found in the central nervous system, more research will need to clarify the relationship between the peripheral and central oxytocin. This study advances the importance of biomarkers in understanding the mechanisms of mindfulness-based practices and how they work in concert to improve emotional health and wellness.
Michael is pursuing his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa.
“Even if they felt excluded, those who had greater levels of self-compassion exhibited less depression because they tended to use positive coping mechanisms. “
The study also highlighted how emotional well-being and self-compassion act as mediators, bridging the gap between mental toughness and aggression to strengthen the protective impact of mental toughness against aggression.
The research highlights the importance to encourage self-compassion and forgiveness to improve older people’s mental health
Recent studies investigating the relationship between loneliness and poor sleep quality in teenagers discovered a significant correlation between higher loneliness and poorer sleep quality.
By providing an immersive, engrossing, and controlled visual and auditory experience in which participants can practice mindfulness techniques, Virtual Reality (VR) systems can create immersive, ecologically valid, first-person experiences that can even tap into physiological reactions that align with real-world experiences.
The researchers were interested in understanding if forgiveness acts as a mechanism by which mindfulness relates to relationship satisfaction. They speculated that being mindful would allow individuals to be aware of their own and their partners’ emotions in a non-judgmental and non-reactive way. The increased awareness would make people more forgiving of partner transgressions, thereby enhancing relationship satisfaction.
Emerging studies are highlighting the effectiveness of mindfulness, gratitude and hopefulness as positive psychological tools in helping people cope with anxiety and stress. These practices have also been considered beneficial in enhancing psychological health and well-being.
Despite growing knowledge that mindfulness meditation can enhance emotional wellbeing, very little is known about how it all works. How exactly does the act of meditation help us deal with the emotional rollercoaster of everyday life? Is mindfulness training actually “transferrable” to real world situations? What’s going on in the brain? Can we even measure it?
How does self-compassion protect depressed adolescents? Quieting the self may be the key.
A study led by Alexandra Martelli investigated whether more mindful individuals (based on self-report measure scores) would respond to social rejection with less distress and if certain neurological mechanisms in the brain’s prefrontal cortex can potentially explain the role of mindfulness in reduced social distress.
A new study by Kim and colleagues explored how compassion-based training can affect two self-regulatory styles and its relationship to neural, physiological, and behavioral responses.
Torre and colleagues recruited 70 HCWs from two hospitals in Rome, Italy for a 4-week course in yoga and mindfulness.
A team of researchers based in the perceived epicenter of the virus, Wuhan, China, recently tested whether a brief mindfulness intervention delivered through an app could be effective for reducing anxiety and protecting nightly sleep during the unfolding pandemic.
Mindfulness practices can enhance a therapist’s ability to intentionally and flexibly regulate attention as well as emotional reactivity which has been demonstrated to influence burnout.
A new study investigated whether a brief mindfulness training designed to reduce physician burnout could be delivered through a smartphone app.
The current study reviewed the wider scientific literature for the role of yoga and mindfulness interventions in the treatment of severe mental illness.
The amount of research involving mindfulness interventions has grown exponentially; however, only in the last decade has mindfulness research involving adolescents rapidly increased.
Mindfulness and self-compassion are theorized to disrupt the maladaptive repetition of negative thoughts and emotions for patients with chronic or mental illnesses, who are particularly susceptible to psychosocial distress.
There is promising evidence that 70% of smokers would like to quit but less than 5% of unassisted attempts at quitting are actually successful.
In a recent pilot study by Suzette Glasner, Ph.D. and her team at the Integrated Substance Abuse Programs at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, they evaluated the effects of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) on reducing relapse susceptibility among stimulant-dependent adults receiving a contingency management (CM) intervention.
A major implication of the study suggests the distal effects of intensive retreat practice on respiration rates, a benefit not necessarily conferred by a brief, but full-day meditation session.
Researchers are exploring mindfulness-based interventions as a long-term treatment options to address the multitude of symptoms after cancer has been treated.
While the scientific study of mindfulness has exponentially increased over the past few decades, only recently has the scientific community focused on the effects of meditation training on biological aging.
Tell us about your idea. Nearly any subject related to the science of mindfulness is fair game.