Access to autobiographical memory as an emotion regulation strategy and its relation to dispositional mindfulness

Autobiographical Memory in Feeding and Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review

INTRODUCTION

Prominent eating disorders (EDs) theories identify a critical relationship between body and self. One of the ways to study this relationship is through autobiographical memories (AMs). The present review aimed to evaluate the studies that investigated AM in patients with EDs.

METHODS

A search of PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases was performed to identify relevant articles. Of the 57,113 studies found, 25,016 were not duplicated. After screening, 27 articles were included.

RESULTS

The studies had some methodological flaws: none of the articles was a randomized control trial and the sample sizes were small. Nevertheless, important evidence emerged because all studies showed that patients with EDs have impaired AM function. This is because the way patients with EDs remember and define themselves is through an allocentric perspective associated with the gazes of others whose role has an impact on AM, body shape, and self.

CONCLUSION

To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review to examine AM in patients with EDs. Future research is needed in EDs to expand knowledge about the relationship between the body and the self.

The effects of mindfulness-based interventions on anxiety, depression, stress, and mindfulness in menopausal women: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are psychological interventions widely used in menopausal women. Currently, there is no evidence summary on the effectiveness of MBIs on anxiety, depression, stress, and mindfulness in menopausal women. This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of MBIs in improving anxiety, depression, stress, and mindfulness scores in menopausal women.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), and Wanfang, using relevant terms such as MBIs as keywords and covering all studies published before March 13, 2022. The outcomes were anxiety, depression, stress, and mindfulness. The screening and extraction of data were conducted by two independent reviewers.

Results

A total of 1,138 menopausal women participated in 13 studies. Meta-analysis results showed that MBIs significantly reduced stress in menopausal women (SMD = -0.84, 95% CI: -1.64 to -0.05, p = 0.04), but no statistical differences were found in reducing anxiety (SMD = -0.40, 95% CI: -0.81 to 0.01, p = 0.06) and depression (SMD = -0.19, 95% CI: -0.45 to 0.07, p = 0.16) and in raising the scores of mindfulness (SMD = 0.37, 95% CI: -0.06 to 0.81, p = 0.09) in menopausal women.

Conclusion

MBIs may reduce stress in menopausal women, but their effect on improving anxiety, depression, and mindfulness needs further validation.

Systematic review registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#recordDetails.

Effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on quality of life and menopausal symptoms in menopausal women: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

Menopause is a normal physiological process experienced by women, but it is often accompanied by physical and emotional symptoms that may negatively affect quality of life. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on quality of life and menopausal symptoms by examining randomized controlled trials.

METHODS

A systematic search was conducted across six electronic databases to collect relevant articles published up to June 30, 2020. The articles' quality was assessed using the modified Jadad scale. We performed a meta-analysis with Review Manager 5.3, calculating 95% confidence intervals and standardized mean differences, and conducted sensitivity analyses.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis of five randomized controlled trials included 475 participants. The results indicated that the mindfulness-based intervention groups showed significant improvements in total quality of life and vasomotor and physical quality of life, compared to control groups (standardized mean differences range: from -0.48 to -0.68, all ps < 0.05). After the sensitivity analyses, evidence of heterogeneity remained. Insufficient data prevented conducting a meta-analysis with the sexual subscale of MENQOL or on vasomotor symptoms of menopause.

CONCLUSION

For menopausal women, mindfulness-based interventions may improve quality of life (except for psychological and sexual subscales). However, there is insufficient evidence to analyze whether such interventions can reduce vasomotor-related menopausal symptoms. Although heterogeneity should be carefully assessed, mindfulness-based interventions may be a novel approach for improving women's overall quality of life during menopause. However, further research is needed to verify these effects.

Exploring the Role of Meditation and Dispositional Mindfulness on Social Cognition Domains: A Controlled Study

Research suggests that mindfulness can induce changes in the social domain, such as enhancing emotional connection to others, prosocial behavior, and empathy. However, despite growing interest in mindfulness in social psychology, very little is known about the effects of mindfulness on social cognition. Consequently, the aim of this study was to explore the relationship between mindfulness and social cognition by comparing meditators with non-meditators on several social cognition measures. A total of 60 participants (meditators, n = 30; non-meditators, n = 30) were matched on sex, age, and ethnic group, and then asked to complete the following assessment measures: Mindful Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form (FFMQ-SF), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Revised Eyes Test, Hinting Task, Ambiguous Intentions and Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Screening for Cognitive Impairment in Psychiatry (SCIP). The results showed that meditators reported higher empathy (except for the personal distress subscale), higher emotional recognition, higher theory of mind (ToM), and lower hostile attributional style/bias. The findings also demonstrated that dispositional mindfulness (both total score assessed with MAAS and mindfulness facets using the FFMQ) was associated with social cognition, although it was not equally correlated with all social cognition outcomes, and correlation patterns differ when analyses were conducted separately for meditators and non-meditators. In addition, results showed potential predictors for each social cognition variable, highlighting non-reactivity to inner experience as a key component of mindfulness in order to explain social cognition performance. In summary, the findings indicated that the meditator sample performed better on certain qualities (i.e., empathy, emotional recognition, ToM, hostile attributional style/bias) in comparison to non-meditators and, furthermore, support the notion that mindfulness is related to social cognition, which may have implications for the design of mindfulness-based approaches for use in clinical and non-clinical settings.