15a - mindfulness therapies

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Uses mindfulness to alleviate pain and improve physical and psychological well-being in individuals suffering from a variety of diseases and disorders

Participants are taught through practice to pay attention to the present moment

moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

Combines cognitive therapy with mindfulness techniques as a treatment for major depressive disorder

Involves acceptance of thoughts and feelings without judgment rather than trying to push them out of consciousness

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

System of therapy developed by Marsha Linehan to treat people with borderline personality disorder

Combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness derived from Buddhist mediation practice

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy that aims to

- Identify what is truly important to the individual at a values level

- Help clients act on those values while abandoning the struggle with problematic thoughts and emotions

− Lead a values focused life: values are now; goals are future

Values are used to guide, motivate and inspire the client to make behavioral changes consistent with them, and they help clients to let go of struggles by remembering a larger purpose

Research on neurophysiological response to pain in meditators vs. non-meditators

In comparison with the non-meditators, the Zen practitioners

• Showed significantly greater activity in the somatosensory cortex, as well as in the insula, the part of the brain involved in proprioception (noticing body sensations)

• Reported that the pain sensations were very, very vivid

• Showed significantly less activity in parts of the prefrontal which are involved in evaluating the pain

• Rated the pain very low, as a 1, 2, or 3, as opposed to the non-meditators who rated their pain as a 8, 9, or 10

• Meditators with the most experience showed the largest reductions in prefrontal and amygdala activation

• In addition, the lower pain sensitivity in meditators was strongly predicted by reductions in functional connectivity between executive (prefrontal) and pain-related cortices

MRI study on Western lay practitioners who incorporated meditation practice into

their daily lives

Meditators averaged 6.2 hours of practice a week for 9.1 years

Compared to control participants, showed thickening in parts of prefrontal cortex and the right anterior insula

Cortical growth was not due to the growth of new neurons, but resulted from:

wider blood vessels

more supporting structures such as glia and astrocytes

increased branching and connections