title: The importance of mindfulness in psychosocial distress and quality of life in dermatology patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mindfulness, defined as purposively and nonjudgementally paying attention in the present moment, could be used within psychosocial interventions to reduce the distress associated with social anxiety and avoidance found in many skin conditions. However, little is known about the relationship between naturally occurring levels of mindfulness and distress in dermatology patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between mindfulness and psychosocial distress in a dermatological population. It was hypothesized that higher levels of mindfulness would be associated with lower levels of social anxiety, anxiety, depression and skin shame, and with better quality of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult dermatology outpatients (n = 120) from one hospital completed items assessing subjective severity, skin shame, fear of negative evaluation, anxiety and depression, quality of life, and levels of mindfulness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Considering depression, 14% reported mild, 5% moderate and 2·5% severe symptoms. For anxiety, 22% reported mild, 23% moderate and 6% severe symptoms. In addition, 33·4% reported clinically significant social anxiety. After controlling for subjective severity, mindfulness explained an additional 19% of the variance in depression, 39% in anxiety, 41% in social anxiety, 13% in skin shame and 6% in dermatological quality of life. One specific facet of mindfulness (acting with awareness) was found to be the most consistent predictor of distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicate that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with lower distress. This suggests that facilitating mindfulness may be helpful in reducing distress in dermatology patients, and the use of mindfulness techniques warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TP, U.K.. kmontgomery1@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TP, U.K.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, U.K.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Messenger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TP, U.K.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064866:Mindfulness; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000209:etiology; D011788:Quality of Life; D012752:Shame; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*