TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hofmann, Stefan G.
A1  - Petrocchi, Nicola
A1  - Steinberg, James
A1  - Lin, Muyu
A1  - Arimitsu, Kohki
A1  - Kind, Shelley
A1  - Mendes, Adriana
A1  - Stangier, Ulrich
T1  - Loving-kindness meditation to target affect in mood disorders : a proof-of-concept study
T2  - Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine
N2  - Conventional treatments for mood disorders primarily focus on reducing negative affect, but little on enhancing positive affect. Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a traditional meditation practice directly oriented toward enhancing unconditional and positive emotional states of kindness towards oneself and others. We report here two independent and uncontrolled studies carried out at different centers, one in Boston, USA (n = 10), and one in Frankfurt, Germany (n = 8), to examine the potential therapeutic utility of a brief LKM group intervention for symptoms of dysthymia and depression. Results at both centers suggest that LKM was associated with large-sized effects on self-reported symptoms of depression (d = 3.33 and 1.90), negative affect (d = 1.98 and 0.92), and positive affect (d = 1.63 and 0.94). Large effects were also found for clinician-reported changes in depression, rumination and specific positive emotions, and moderate effects for changes in adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The qualitative data analyses provide additional support for the potential clinical utility of the intervention. This proof-of-concept evaluation of LKM as a clinical strategy warrants further investigation.
Y1  - 2015
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/50662
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-506621
SN  - 1741-4288
SN  - 1741-427X
N1  - Copyright © 2015 Stefan G. Hofmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 2015
IS  - Art. 269126
SP  - 1
EP  - 11
PB  - Hindawi
CY  - New York, NY
ER  -