The effects of a mindfulness intervention on obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a non-clinical student population.
This controlled pilot study tested the effects of a mindfulness intervention on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and tested the psychological processes possibly mediating such effects. Participants with OCD symptoms (12 women, 5 men) received either mindfulness training (N=8) or formed a waiting-list control group (N = 9). Meditation included 8 group meetings teaching meditative breathing, body-scan, and mindful daily living, applied to OCD. The intervention had a significant and large effect on mindfulness, OCD symptoms, letting go, and thought-action fusion. Controlling for changes in "letting go," group effects on change in OCD symptoms disappeared, pointing at a mediating role for letting go. This may be the first controlled study demonstrating that a mindfulness intervention reduces OCD symptoms, possibly explained by increasing letting go capacity. If replicated in larger and clinical samples, mindfulness training may be an alternative therapy for OCD.
Centre of Research on Psychology in Somatic Disease (CoRPS), Department of Medical Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Marijke
M
Hanstede
Yori
Y
Gidron
Ivan
I
Nyklícek
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*