Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, and Mental Health -- UPDATED
Nov 3, 2012
Visitors to my site will know I have highlighted the research on how improved mindfulness skills, in particular the development of a non-judging relationship with internal experiences, can lead to improvements in mental health. Various suggestions have been made for what mechamisms are involved in this process, one being that Mindfulness assists Emotion Reguation, perhaps through some "top-down" process -- improving mindfulness might increase one's ability to control one's emotions -- [LINK]
Recent research, experimental and theoretical, provides further insight into these relationships. A recent paper, by Alberto Chiesa and colleagues from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of Bologna, Italy, notes that current discrepancies between theoretical accounts of mindfulness' effects might derive from the many different descriptions and applications of mindfulness. Their review aims to discuss current descriptions of mindfulness and the relationship existing between mindfulness practice and most commonly investigated emotion regulation strategies. They discuss recent results from functional neuro-imaging studies investigating mindfulness training within the context of emotion regulation. They suggest that mindfulness training is associated with ‘top-down’ emotion regulation in short-term practitioners and with ‘bottom-up’ emotion regulation in long-term practitioners. Alternatively, they suggest, different instructions or mental conditions could influence the neural mechanisms of Mindfulness Training [LINK] article available here [LINK]
In another article with a theoretical focus, which is freely available [LINK] David Vago and David Silbersweig of the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, attempt to provide an integrative theoretical
framework and systems-based neurobiological model that explains the mechanisms by which mindfulness reduces biases related to self-processing and creates a sustainable healthy mind. Mindfulness is described through systematic mental training that develops meta-awareness (self-awareness), an ability to effectively modulate one’s behavior (self-regulation), and a positive relationship between self and other that transcends self-focused needs and increases prosocial characteristics (self-transcendence). This framework of self-awareness, -regulation, and -transcendence (S-ART) illustrates a method for becoming aware of the conditions that cause (and remove) distortions or biases. The development of S-ART through meditation is proposed to modulate self-specifying and narrative self-networks through an integrative fronto-parietal control network. Relevant perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral neuropsychological processes are highlighted as supporting mechanisms for S-ART, including intention and motivation, attention regulation, emotion regulation, extinction and reconsolidation, prosociality, non-attachment, and decentering. The S-ART framework and neurobiological model is based on our growing understanding of the mechanisms for neurocognition, empirical literature, and through dismantling the specific meditation practices thought to cultivate mindfulness.
I have now uploaded, and provided links to articles in the special section of The Journal of Traumatic Stress (Vol 25(3)) on Complex PTSD -- see my page here [LINK]
I shall be submittinng a brief commentary to this blog, but SPOILER ALERT -- see the articles by Daniel Weiss, and, in particular, with respect to the ACT study using covariance and omitting the inclusion of Emotion Regulation as a variable of core interest (Iverson et al [LINK], please note the highlighted sections in this attached file from Weiss -- [LINK] which I include with further comments on new pages on my site [LINK] on covariance and [LINK] on diagnosis.