Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T04:28:52.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

EPA-1356 – Mindfulness and Psychiatry: can the Old Practice be a New Tool?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

R. Silva
Affiliation:
Departamento de Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental, Unidade Local de Saúde da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal
C. Araújo
Affiliation:
Serviço de Psiquiatria da Infância e da Adolescência, Hospital Pediátrico de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
A. Furet
Affiliation:
Serviço de Psiquiatria, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
H. Fontes
Affiliation:
Serviço de Psiquiatria, Hospital do Divino Espirito Santo, Ponta Delgada, Portugal
V. Leite
Affiliation:
Serviço de Psiquiatria da Infância e da Adolescência, Hospital Pediátrico de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Introduction

Mindfulness is rooted in old and philosophical traditions, but its practice does not require the domain of those cultures or their vocabulary, allowing it to become widespread and increasingly popular. In this way and having its psychological concept of focusing of attention and awareness, Mindfulness is desirable for many clinicians worldwide. Over recent years many doctors were enthused by the technique and many others are still learning and integrating it in their clinical and therapeutic work, particularly in Mental Health.

Objective

The authors aim to describe in what way the Mindfulness technique is being applied to the psychiatric field and what type of results are being achieved for the different psychiatric disorders.

Methods

Exhaustive review of the literature in what concerns Mindfulness and its applications in Psychiatry, using PubMed database.

Results

Studies show that Mindfulness has different results and outcomes accordingly to the different psychiatric diagnostic categories. The literature shows an overall improvement in the different populations of psychiatric patients, raising the hypothesis that the discrepancy may be related to differences in the duration of the illness, its baseline severity, individual characteristics, motivation for adherence and maintenance of the practice, among other factors.

Conclusions

Mindfulness practice, inherited from ancient traditions, is now being applied to several mental pathologies with some positive outcomes, particularly in Depression, Anxiety, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Psycho-Oncology, Obsessive-compulsive Disorder and Substance Abuse. More studies are needed to validate this trend but so far it seems to be a promising psychotherapeutic technique for specific situations and patients.

Type
EPW44 - Psychotherapy
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2014
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.