Mindfulness is the dispassionate,moment-by-moment awareness of sensations,emotions and thoughts.Mindfulness-based interventions are being increasingly used for stress,psychological well being,coping with chronic illne...Mindfulness is the dispassionate,moment-by-moment awareness of sensations,emotions and thoughts.Mindfulness-based interventions are being increasingly used for stress,psychological well being,coping with chronic illness as well as adjunctive treatments for psychiatric disorders.However,the neural mechanisms associated with mindfulness have not been well characterized.Recent functional and structural neuroimaging studies are beginning to provide insights into neural processes associated with the practice of mindfulness.A review of this literature revealed compelling evidence that mindfulness impacts the function of the medial cortex and associated default mode network as well as insula and amygdala.Additionally,mindfulness practice appears to effect lateral frontal regions and basal ganglia,at least in some cases.Structural imaging studies are consistent with these findings and also indicate changes in the hippocampus.While many questions remain unanswered,the current literature provides evidence of brain regions and networks relevant for understanding neural processes associated with mindfulness.展开更多
The increasing number and sophistication of available psychotherapies suggests that a critical appraisal of the methodological issues of psychotherapy studies is highly needed. Several key questions regarding the effi...The increasing number and sophistication of available psychotherapies suggests that a critical appraisal of the methodological issues of psychotherapy studies is highly needed. Several key questions regarding the efficacy of a given intervention, the understanding of whether positive effects observed following the delivery of a psychotherapeutic intervention are specifcally attribut-able to the intervention itself or to other “non specifc” factors, such as beneft expectations, therapist attention and support, and the possibility of improving psycho-therapy research need an answer. This, in turn, could provide clinicians with more rigorous information about psychotherapy outcomes and could properly address several shortcomings that are frequently observed in current psychotherapy studies. Accordingly, in this edi-torial I will highlight some of the most important critical issues that a well designed psychotherapy study should take into account, including the need for appropriate control groups, appropriate randomization and blinding procedures, and the importance of performing appro-priately powered studies that include a suffciently long follow-up period. Finally, I will build on my expertise in the feld of mindfulness based interventions, in particu-lar mindfulness based stress reduction and mindfulness based cognitive therapy, to show how such issues have been and can be successfully implemented in the design of future psychotherapy studies.展开更多
基金Supported by The resources and the use of facilities at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System
文摘Mindfulness is the dispassionate,moment-by-moment awareness of sensations,emotions and thoughts.Mindfulness-based interventions are being increasingly used for stress,psychological well being,coping with chronic illness as well as adjunctive treatments for psychiatric disorders.However,the neural mechanisms associated with mindfulness have not been well characterized.Recent functional and structural neuroimaging studies are beginning to provide insights into neural processes associated with the practice of mindfulness.A review of this literature revealed compelling evidence that mindfulness impacts the function of the medial cortex and associated default mode network as well as insula and amygdala.Additionally,mindfulness practice appears to effect lateral frontal regions and basal ganglia,at least in some cases.Structural imaging studies are consistent with these findings and also indicate changes in the hippocampus.While many questions remain unanswered,the current literature provides evidence of brain regions and networks relevant for understanding neural processes associated with mindfulness.
文摘The increasing number and sophistication of available psychotherapies suggests that a critical appraisal of the methodological issues of psychotherapy studies is highly needed. Several key questions regarding the efficacy of a given intervention, the understanding of whether positive effects observed following the delivery of a psychotherapeutic intervention are specifcally attribut-able to the intervention itself or to other “non specifc” factors, such as beneft expectations, therapist attention and support, and the possibility of improving psycho-therapy research need an answer. This, in turn, could provide clinicians with more rigorous information about psychotherapy outcomes and could properly address several shortcomings that are frequently observed in current psychotherapy studies. Accordingly, in this edi-torial I will highlight some of the most important critical issues that a well designed psychotherapy study should take into account, including the need for appropriate control groups, appropriate randomization and blinding procedures, and the importance of performing appro-priately powered studies that include a suffciently long follow-up period. Finally, I will build on my expertise in the feld of mindfulness based interventions, in particu-lar mindfulness based stress reduction and mindfulness based cognitive therapy, to show how such issues have been and can be successfully implemented in the design of future psychotherapy studies.
