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.
Hanstede
Marijke
M
Centre of Research on Psychology in Somatic Disease (CoRPS), Department of Medical Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Gidron
Yori
Y
Nyklícek
Ivan
I
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*