Abstract
Individuals suffering with psychotic disorders face lifelong emotional dysregulation and may have impairments in their thought processes and perceptual experiences despite the availability to pharmacological treatment and good compliance. They feel extreme distress with their psychotic experiences that may result in avoidance of these experiences which may further warrant for residual symptoms and frequent hospitalizations. For a few decades literature has focused on exploring the possibilities of acceptance-based interventions in psychosis. Mindfulness interventions employ the strategies of direct use of meditation practice or combined use of meditation with acceptance-based or compassion-based practices. This chapter tends to summarize the various mindfulness interventions used for psychosis and review their feasibility in terms of evidence base and therapeutic specificity. Furthermore, it recommends the guidelines for protocol to be used with psychotic individuals and advocates the need for more methodologically rigorous evidence.
TopBackground
Mindfulness assumes that an experience is followed by some typical habitual response that may further cause distress to the individual opposing the prospect that experiences may direct lead to distress (Abba et al., 2008).Mindfulness is a mental training where an individual discovers the other ways to respond to experiences that alleviate the distress by changing the relationship that individual has with his or her emotional experiences (Ivanovski & Malhi, 2007; Kabat-Zinn, 2009). It aims at increasing one's moment-to-moment awareness and attention and simultaneously rejecting the need to change or modify one’s internal experiences, such as emotions and cognitions. This kind of nonjudgmental awareness facilitates balanced emotional engagement (Bridges et al., 2004).
Mindfulness training and practice includes following elements:
- 1.
An organized system of method which incorporates both the authentic recognized mindfulness practice (body scan, mindful walking etc.) as well as the informal mindfulness practice (Socratic dialogues).
- 2.
An attitudinal framework characterized by curiosity, willingness and kindness. These are deliberately cultivated to become aware and present with exploration of experience of daily life during the practice.
- 3.
An appreciation of human vulnerability that suffering is an inherent part of experience which can be recognized and there are ways to get rid of the habits to these experiences that subsequently perpetuate or add to it. This is developed by integrating the personal experience that is explored without judgment with the understanding of Buddhist philosophy around mindfulness practice. Figure 1 describes how these elements are integrated.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Meditation: An altered state of consciousness. Also defined as a family of focused techniques practiced in religious traditions to produce radical changes in individual’s perceptions about self, others, and world.
Psychosis: A functionally disruptive symptom of various psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, neurological, and medical conditions characterized with significantly decreased or increased psychomotor activity, social-cognitive impairments and emotional disturbances.
Publication Bias: A research term to describe a bias that occurs when the direction and magnitude of research study outcome influences the decision of either publishing or distributing the study.
Therapeutic Specificity: A construct that a specific therapy or therapeutic technique is the only predictor of an outcome
Mindfulness Meditation: A traditional form of spiritually profound meditative practice that aims to use curiosity and focused attention to cultivate present moment awareness, self-understanding, acceptance, and spiritual calmness without being critical.
Cognitive Therapies: Therapeutic approaches directed towards modifying the information processing by identifying and restructuring the maladaptive thought patterns or cognitions into constructive ones.
Internal Experiences: An idea used in mindfulness practice to define the sensations, thoughts, emotions, or feelings.
Sensations: Immediate experience in respond to external stimulation of sense organ, sensory nerve, or sensory area in brain.
Mindfulness Practice: Practice of mindfulness meditation exercises based on Buddhist principles.