Mindfulness training in Physical Health: how might changes in emotional experience and/or regulation be implicated?

In today's modern world, where more people are living longer in the presence of chronic physical illnesses and mental-health conditions, mindfulness training may represent a useful supplementary treatment approach. Rapidly increasing research has documented the ability of mindfulness-based interventions to improve health outcomes. However, often overlooked, are questions regarding the clinical relevance of these improvements, for patients and clinicians alike. Similarly, despite substantial work examining emotion-related processes as mechanisms of mindfulness training, how these processes translate into physical health benefits remains unclear. This doctoral work addressed these two limitations in the extant literature by investigating: (1) whether standardized Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) benefitted objective physical health outcomes, that are also patient important and clinically meaningful, in the context of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA); and (2) how changes in emotional experience and/or regulation might be implicated in the relationship between mindfulness training and salutary physical health outcomes. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigated: (1) the efficacy of MBSR for reducing RA disease activity; and (2) the mediating effects of any changes in depression and/or anxiety, on changes in RA disease activity. A laboratory study investigating whether trait mindfulness was related to physiological responding, as measured by heart rate variability (HRV), and self-emotion differentiation in response to emotional stress, was also conducted.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Health Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Fogarty, Anna

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Consedine, N

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/46365

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/46365