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Mindfulness
1. What is mindfulness?
2. Benefits of mindfulness
3. Applications of mindfulness
   training
Does Mindfulness training for healthcare
  professionals improve outcomes for
    themselves and their patients?

    Dr Stephanie Jackson DipSIM
What is mindfulness?
Exercise
The term mindfulness refers to a quality of
 awareness that includes the ability to pay
 attention in a particular way: on purpose,
 in the present moment, and non-
 judgementally (Kabat-Zinn, 1994)
Mindfulness – a Buddhist teaching
           7 fundamental attitudes:


•   Non-judging
•   Beginner’s Mind
•   Non striving
•   Accepting
•   Patience
•   Trust
•   Letting go
Mindfulness training is . .
• An integrative mind-body based approach that helps people change
  the way they think and feel about their experiences, especially
  stressful experiences.

• It involves paying attention to our thoughts and feelings so we
  become more aware of them, less enmeshed in them, and better
  able to manage them.

• Mindfulness teaches us how to accept out thoughts without
  unhelpfully identifying with them.

• When people practice mindfulness, they are encouraged not to aim
  for a particular result but simply to “do it” and see what happens.

       Mental Health Foundation. Mindfulness Report, 2010.
Background
• 1979 – Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
                                     (MBSR)

• 2000 – Contemplative Neuroscience

• 2004 – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
                                      (MBCT)

• 2000 - 2011 exponential growth in published
  papers
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
                 (MBSR)
• 8 week group participation program
• 2 hours teaching time per week
• Home practice – 45 mins/ day for 6 days
• Body awareness, yoga, walking and sitting
  meditation
• One day silent retreat

• Plus variations on this core structure . . .
• Individual compliance with homework will vary.
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
                 (MBCT)
• Developed by Segal, Williams and
  Teasdale, Oxford, 2004

• Same structure with cognitive therapy
  component

• Recommended by NICE for the prevention
  of depression for those with 2 + previous
  episodes.
What are the benefits of
  mindfulness training and how
          does it work?
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Physiology
Mechanisms of Mindfulness
• Attention

• Intention Control (emotional regulation)

• Attitude (a specific attitude marked by
  friendliness and acceptance)


                            Shapiro et al, 2006
Cognitive Neuroscience
•Long term meditators induce high amplitude gamma synchrony (associated
with attention, conscious perception, learning and working memory)
Lutz et al, 2004. Long term meditators self induce high amplitude gamma synchrony
during mental practice. PNAS, 101(46), pp16369-16373


•Mindfulness is associated with enhanced prefrontal cortical regulation
of affect through labelling of negative affective stimuli (emotional regulation)
Creswell et al, 2007.. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, pp.560-565



Increases in regional gray matter concentration in left hippocampus,
posterior cingulate cortex, temporo-parietal junction and
cerebellum compared to controls
(learning, memory, emotional regulation and perspective taking)
Holzel et al, 2011. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191, pp.36-43



Significant increases in left-sided anterior activation (Left pre-frontal cortex)
(previously associated with positive affect and approach orientated behaviour)
Davidson et al, 2003. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, pp.565-570
What does this mean?

• Meditation is associated with increased attention
  and affective processes

• Brain is flexible and can be trained and its
  function can alter over time.
Psychological outcomes
Why is Mindfulness helpful?
Mindfulness may aid well-being through a number
  of mechanisms:
• Greater insight
• Improved problem-solving
• Better attention
• Less selfishness and neurosis
• More acceptance
• Greater enjoyment of life
• Less “beating ourselves up”
• Better mind-body integration
Mindfulness-based stress reduction for
   stress management in healthy people
• Design: Review & meta analysis – 10 low
  quality studies

• Results:
• MBSR – non specific effect on reducing stress
  and enhancing spiritual values

• Reduce ruminative thinking and trait anxiety

• MBSR increases empathy and self compassion
       Chiesa & Serrett, 2009, Clinical Psychology Review,31, pp.449-464
Physiology outcomes
Short term meditation improves attention
             and self regulation
• Partipants: 80 Chinese undergraduates
• Randomly assigned – 5 days, 20 mins/day


• Outcomes
• Lower salivary cortisol
• Higher salivary IgA concentrations
• In response to stress (mental arithmetic task)




  Tang et al, 2007. PNAS, 104(43), pp. 17152-17156
How it works
• Develops awareness
• Reduces anxiety and stress in present
  moment
• Prevents rumination
• Promotes healthy coping strategies
Healthcare professionals

• Evidence for:
• Decreasing stress, negative effect, rumination, both state
  and trait anxiety

• Increasing positive effect, self compassion, and QOL

• Clinical skills: increasing empathy and improving care-
  giver patient relationship
Exercise
Applications of Mindfulness Training
Transport for London workers
• Mindfulness based programme led to major
  changes in health related absenteeism

• Days taken off due to stress, depression and
  anxiety fell by over 70% in following 3 years

• Absences for all health conditions were halved
Of those who took course:
• 80% said their relationships had improved

• 79% said they were more able to relax

• 53% said they were happier in their jobs



   Mental Health Foundation (2010) Mindfulness Report, London.
   Executive summary available from:
   http://www.bemindful.co.uk/media/downloads/Executive%20summary.pdf
Healthcare professionals work in stressful
environments, with long hours, heavy caseloads
and limited control over their working conditions.
Added to this are frequent restructuring of
organisations and changing guidelines about
practice. Burnout is common, as are associated
physical health problems (Irving et al, 2009).
Doctors
•   Reduction in psychological stress
•   Improves quality of life
•   Improvement in performance
•   Reduced physician burnout



             (Shapiro et al., Int J of Stress Manag, 2005; 12: 164-176)
             (Hassed et al., Adv Health Sci Educ, 2009; 14: 387-398)
MBSR for Healthcare professionals: results
        from a randomised trial
• Intervention: 8 week MBSR course                                    - physicians,
  psychologists, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists


• Results: Effective for reducing stress and increasing
  QOL and self compassion in healthcare professionals


• Other possible outcomes: enhancement of
  working relationships / patient care



  Shapiro et al, 2005. International Journal of Stress Management, 12(2), pp. 164-176
Mindfulness and
Resilience
Dr Duncan Shrewsbury,
Dr Rebecca Viney, Dr Paquita de Zuluetta
Resilience
•   Positive Psychology
•   “falling over 5 times, getting up 6”
•   • Bending without breaking
•   • Bouncing back
•   • Self righting
•   • Learning and growth
Patients
• Mindfulness has been used for patients suffering
  with:
• Low mood or Depression
• Anxiety and panic
• Stress
• Conditions such as chronic fatigue, chronic pain,
  fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, psoriasis,
  sleep disorder and headaches
Mindfulness helps with the art of Medicine
• Medicine has traditionally been described as a
  healing profession. Healing can be defined as
  being cured when possible, reducing suffering
  when cure is not possible, and finding meaning
  beyond the illness experience (Scott et al, 2008).
NICE guidelines for healing
• Mindful practice supports healing relationships,
  and as a link between relationship centred care
  and evidenced based medicine, mindfulness
  should be considered a characteristic of good
  clinical practice (Epstein, 1999).
Physician competencies that facilitate
              healing relationships
•   Self confidence
•   Emotional self management
•   Mindfulness
•   Knowledge


• Self acceptance, emotional regulation and
  mindfulness all outcomes of mindfulness training


    Scott et al, 2008. Annals of Family Medicine, 6(4), pp.315-322
Promoting mindfulness in psychotherapists in
   training influences the treatment results of their
                        patients



• Design: a randomized double-blind, controlled study
• 124 psychiatric inpatients treated by 18 interns – treated
  for 9 weeks


• Intervention: Zen meditation

 Grepmair et al, 2007. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 76(6), pp.332-338
Results: Patients whose therapists had received
                          mindfulness training:


• Rated their therapists higher on their therapeutic
  relationship, problem solving skills and ability to
  communicate clearly

• These patients did significantly better in terms of
  symptom severity including: somatisation, insecurity on
  social contact, obsessiveness, anxiety, anger/hostility,
  phobic anxiety, paranoid thinking and psychotism


  Grepmair et al, 2007. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 76(6), pp.332-338
Bringing mindful practice into GP Training

• Three mindful breaths waiting for chose and
  book to load / computer to load…

• Breathing with patient when listening to their
  chest…

• Mindful moment – walking through door to
  collect the next patient.
If you would like to learn some more…

• www.mindfulnesscornwall.co.uk
www.bemindful.co.uk




•
• MINDFULNESS IS A MIND-BODY
  APPROACH TO WELL-BEING THAT
  CAN HELP YOU CHANGE THE WAY
  YOU THINK ABOUT EXPERIENCES
  AND REDUCE STRESS AND ANXIETY.
• THE MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION
  WANTS TO MAKE MINDFULNESS
  AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.
Thank you!