Mindfulness, mood, and food: The mediating role of positive affect

The Role of Mindfulness Therapy in the Treatment of Chronic Pain

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Mindfulness therapy is a widely used treatment for many diseases and has been shown to improve pain-related functions. There is growing support for the use of psychotherapy in the treatment of chronic pain. While studies have shown a positive effect of mindfulness therapy, it is important to consider psychosocial factors as there are still a small number of studies that question its effectiveness.

RECENT FINDINGS

Based on current studies, mindfulness therapy involves cognitive factors related to chronic pain, both in terms of cognitive production and its impact on cognitive control. Psychological and neurobasic studies were reviewed to provide a deeper understanding of these components, which include thought inhibition, attention deficit, pain catastrophizing, and self-efficacy. Mindfulness therapy has the potential to normalize psychology and nerves, and increase internal and external connectivity to work networks related to stress perception, cognition, and emotion. However, further research is needed to fully understand its effects. By exploring the relationship between mindfulness therapy and chronic pain. This review provides a new avenue for future research in psychotherapy for patients with chronic pain.

The effect of a mindfulness-based body scan exercise on food intake during TV watching

In some studies mindfulness is associated with reduced food consumption, but the underlying mechanisms are less well researched. One potential mechanism is that mindfulness increases attention toward feelings of fullness. Additionally, experimental research on mindfulness and food intake has primarily been conducted in constrained laboratory settings, where it may be easier for participants to notice their internal bodily signals, as opposed to the real world where individuals are often engaged in other activities while eating. The effect of mindfulness on food intake while participants are distracted remains unexplored. This study therefore aimed to examine whether a mindfulness-based body scan exercise reduced food consumption within a distracted environment by increasing attention toward feelings of fullness. Participants (n = 137) listened to a 10-minute body scan meditation, or a 10-minute visualisation (control) meditation. They were then given a bowl of crisps to consume while watching a 10-minute TV show segment. Participants also completed measures assessing proposed mediators, including state mindfulness, attention to bodily sensations and eating automaticity. The body scan manipulation increased state mindfulness but had no direct effect on the other mediators or on food intake (intervention M = 34.79g, SD = 24.06; control M = 33.16g, SD = 23.88). State mindfulness was positively correlated with attention to bodily sensations while eating. Lower eating automaticity and greater reliance on decreased food appeal and physical satisfaction to stop eating were found to be associated with lower food intake. Contrary to previous studies, we found no evidence that a mindfulness body scan reduces food consumption when participants are distracted. Future research should examine the specific conditions under and mechanisms by which mindfulness may influence food consumption.

Effect of brief mindfulness and relaxation inductions on anxiety, affect and brain activation in athletes

The mindfulness-based intervention and psychological skills training are often used for maintaining the mental health or reducing undesirable mental states in athletes. However, their differences in acute effects on mental health and underlying neural mechanism are not well understood. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the differential effects of brief mindfulness induction (MI) and relaxation induction (RI) on state anxiety, affect and brain activation. Thirty-five track and field athletes were recruited for this study. Using a within-subjects crossover design, participants underwent three conditions that incorporated two 30-min experimental conditions (i.e., MI or RI) and a control condition. State anxiety and affect were assessed before and after intervention, and brain activation (i.e., theta, alpha bands) were recorded by electroencephalography (EEG) during each 30-min condition. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that MI and RI similarly reduced state anxiety and negative affect from pre-test to post-test compared to the control condition. In terms of positive affect, there were no significant differences among the three conditions across times. Furthermore, participants exhibited higher frontal theta power during the MI and RI than control condition, whereas no differences in alpha power were observed among conditions. The current study provides initial evidence from an electrophysiological perspective that brief MI and RI both improve the negative psychological states in individual sport athletes through similar neural mechanisms. Nevertheless, the moderating effects of training experiences and long-term interventions on mental state and EEG activity in athletes need further investigation in future studies.

Temperaments and orthorexia nervosa: a cross-cultural study between Germany and Lebanon

The aim of this study was to explore the association between affective temperaments and orthorexic eating and whether temperament may explain cross-cultural differences in this behavior while considering the two dimensions of orthorexic eating, healthy (HeOr) and nervosa (OrNe). To accomplish this, 337 and 389 individuals were recruited in Lebanon and Germany, respectively. The brief version of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego explored depressive, hyperthymic, cyclothymic, anxious and irritable temperaments, and the Teruel Orthorexia scale explored orthorexic eating. HeOr appeared comparable between countries but OrNe was higher in Lebanon. In terms of affective temperaments, the higher the depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, and anxious temperaments, the higher were the levels of OrNe. Only the hyperthymic temperament scale was positively associated with HeOr. Three-step regression analysis indicated only gender as a unique predictor for HeOr. By contrast, gender, depressive, hyperthymic, and anxious temperament as well as the two-way interactions country*depressive temperament and country*hyperthymic temperament were significant predictors of OrNe. The positive association between OrNe and depressive temperament was only found for the German sample while the negative association between hyperthymic temperament and OrNe was somewhat stronger in the Lebanese sample. Overall, a higher healthy interest in diet was linked to the hyperthymic temperament. Findings emphasized the role of temperaments in pathological orthorexic eating in general as well as in explaining cross-cultural differences in these behaviors. The assessment of temperaments could help to fit treatments for eating pathologies to individuals from different cultures, focusing interventions more on these aspects.

Effects of Game Situation-Dependent Emotions on Sport Spectators' Food Craving

This study sought to challenge prevalent accounts of emotional eating by exploring the effects of situation-dependent emotions on consumers’ food craving. Four specific game situations in the context of spectator sports, each corresponding to the four types of emotional coping (outcome-desire conflict, avoidance, fulfillment, and pursuit), were identified as follows: decisive victories, decisive losses, close victories, and close losses. By employing laboratory-based virtual reality spectatorship, Study 1 tested the causal effects of happiness (fulfillment), anger (conflict), sadness (conflict), fear (avoidance), and hope (pursuit) on food craving. Study 2 further designed fans’ previous association between emotions and eating as a moderating mechanism in the context of online sport viewership. The results of the two experiments supported the three theoretical principles of eating behavior, including the “food as fuel” principle of anger, the hedonic eating principle of happiness, and the self-regulation principle of hope. However, the results rejected the escape awareness principle of sadness and fear. The study concludes with a discussion of context-dependent emotional positioning and intervention strategies for marketers and policy makers.

The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy upon weight management and psychological well-being of adults with overweight or obesity: A systematic review

Several studies have examined acceptance and commitment therapy's (ACT) effectiveness for addressing physical and psychological distress people with obesity can face. Nevertheless, no review focusing specifically on ACT analysing randomized controlled trials (RCT) has been done up to date in this field. The present systematic review was developed following the PRISMA statement and aimed to examine ACT's effects on weight management and psychological well-being of adults with overweight or obesity. A conjunction of keywords related to ACT and excess weight was searched in four databases (Medline, PubMed, Psycinfo and Scopus) for articles meeting inclusion criteria. The literature search yielded 2,074 papers, and 16 were included in the review, finally. In 71.43% of the studies, ACT was effective to enhance psychological well-being; in 50% effectively targeted process variables and health behaviours related to weight management; in 31.82% of studies, physical variables were improved; and 21.38% of studies showed evidence in favour of ACT for eating behaviour modification. The present review supports ACT for promoting emotional aspects of individuals immersed in such weight-related battles and highlights the benefits of psychological well-being-oriented ACT in the context of obesity treatment. More studies targeting psychological well-being primarily and with longer follow-ups are required.