Mindfulness practice for protecting mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
| Autor: | Shouyan Wang, Deniz Vatansever, Barbara J. Sahakian, Julie Lei Zhu, Rasmus Schülke, Mark Yuting Chen, Dayou Xi, Junjie Yan, Xiaohua Xie, Jianfeng Feng, Hanqing Zhao |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Schülke, Rasmus [0000-0001-7631-1786], Sahakian, Barbara Jacquelyn [0000-0001-7352-1745], Wang, Shouyan [0000-0002-9776-8539], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
050103 clinical psychology
China Mindfulness media_common.quotation_subject Psychological intervention Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry Anxiety 03 medical and health sciences Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience 0302 clinical medicine 631/477/2811 Intervention (counseling) 692/699/476/1414 Human behaviour Medicine Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Meditation Pandemics Biological Psychiatry Depression (differential diagnoses) media_common business.industry Depression SARS-CoV-2 05 social sciences article COVID-19 Mental health Psychiatry and Mental health Distress Mental Health medicine.symptom business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Stress Psychological Clinical psychology RC321-571 |
| Zdroj: | Translational Psychiatry, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021) Translational Psychiatry |
| ISSN: | 2158-3188 |
| Popis: | Funder: Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities, Plan 111 (No. B18015). National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFC1312900). Emerging evidence shows that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is negatively affecting mental health around the globe. Interventions to alleviate the psychological impact of the pandemic are urgently needed. Whether mindfulness practice may protect against the harmful emotional effects of a pandemic crisis remains hitherto unknown. We investigated the influence of mindfulness training on mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. We hypothesized that mindfulness practitioners might manifest less pandemic-related distress, depression, anxiety, and stress than non-practitioners and that more frequent practice would be associated with an improvement in mental health during the pandemic. Therefore, we assessed pandemic-related distress and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as the frequency of meditation practice at the peak of new infections (Feb 4–5; N = 673) and three weeks later (Feb 29–30; N = 521) in mindfulness practitioners via online questionnaires. Self-reported symptoms were also collected from non-practitioners at peak time only (N = 1550). We found lower scores of pandemic-related distress in mindfulness practitioners compared to non-practitioners. In general, older participants showed fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety. In younger practitioners, pandemic-related distress decreased from peak to follow-up. Importantly, increased mindfulness training during the preceding two weeks was associated with lower scores of depression and anxiety at both assessments. Likewise, practice frequency predicted individual improvement in scores of depression, anxiety, and stress at follow-up. Our results indicate that mindfulness meditation might be a viable low-cost intervention to mitigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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