Evaluation of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy to Reduce Psychological Distress and to Promote Well-Being

Elizabeth McCay, Rachael Frankford, Heather Beanlands, Souraya Sidani, Enza Gucciardi, Rebecca Blidner, Audrey Danaher, Celina Carter and Andria Aiello

SAGE Open, 2016, vol. 6, issue 3, 2158244016669547

Abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) group intervention to reduce psychological distress as well as to strengthen self-esteem, resilience, and general well-being for individuals living with a chronic illness and/or other health challenges. This pilot study employed a pre–posttest design to evaluate the outcome of the intervention for individuals receiving care in a Community and Family Medicine department and a Women’s Health Centre located in an urban downtown hospital. A total of 42 patients were enrolled in the study and 35 participants completed the intervention. Thirty-five of 42 enrolled participants completed the intervention. Twenty-eight participants completed the pretest and posttest assessments, which demonstrated statistically significant improvement on most outcome measures, including the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Rating Scale (CES-D), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), Affect Balance Scale (ABS), the Resilience Scale (RS), and the Five-Item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Large effect sizes were observed for the CES-D, the ABS, and the DASS Stress subscale. Observed improvements were sustained at 4 weeks posttreatment. Results are consistent with studies indicating that MBCT offers promise in alleviating psychological distress for those who are seeking care in primary health care settings. Continued focus on how to best implement MBCT in primary health care, particularly for those with comorbid physical and mental health conditions, supports the World Health Organization’s recommendation to integrate evidence-based mental health care within primary health care to promote equitable access to care for those most in need.

Keywords: mindfulness-cognitive-behavioral therapy; primary health care; chronic illness; psychological distress; depression; anxiety; resilience; self-esteem; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244016669547 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:6:y:2016:i:3:p:2158244016669547

DOI: 10.1177/2158244016669547

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().