ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Zarnaghash   M (1)
Mehrabizadeh Honarmand   M (2)
Beshlideh   K (*2)
Davodi   I (2)
Marashi   S.A (2)






(*2) Psychology Department, Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran
(1) Psychology Department, Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran
(2) Psychology Department, Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran
(2) Psychology Department, Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran
(2) Psychology Department, Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran

Correspondence

Article History

Received:  June  7, 2018
Accepted:  December 16, 2018
ePublished:  May 15, 2019

BRIEF TEXT


Amputation is the most disturbing and damaging thing a person may experience in his or her life.

... [1-11]. Reducing mindfulness-based stress can help veterans' spouses have the opportunity to develop their needed self-control and self-efficacy skills. This can protect a person from stress-related malfunctioning by protecting cognitive coping strategies, such as positive reassessment and enhancing emotion regulation skills, like distress tolerance [12]. As a result, people who were exposed to the trauma, by learning new skills and adaptive behaviors can effectively face life events and bring new meaning to their lives [3]. Segal et al. state that the fundamental mindfulness based on acceptance of unpleasant thoughts and emotional states dramatically increases the individual's ability to control the influence of his thoughts and emotions and let the person to experience a wide range of thoughts and emotions without experiencing emotional distress [13]. ... [14].

The aim of the present research was to investigate the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on anxious thoughts of wives of veterans with amputation.

This research is an experimental study with pre-test post-test design with control group

This research was done on 28 veterans’ wives with amputation referring to the Isargaran counseling center of Ahvaz.

For sampling, 200 medical records available in the Ahwaz Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs were reviewed and the amputee veterans’ wives who had been referred to the counseling center for solving marital conflicts were invited to participate in the research. Then, 28 volunteers were selected through the sampling method, who met the inclusion criteria of the study. Inclusion criteria included the minimum level of education (third grade of secondary school), no psychiatric drugs intake, consent and commitment to attend all mindfulness sessions and being married more than 10 years. The subjects (n=28) were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups (each group: 14 subjects).

The research tool was the Anxious Thoughts Inventory by Wells, which was designed to measure various dimensions of worry concerns, containing 21 items and three subscales, including social worry (8 items), health worry (6 items) and meta-thought (7 items). In the present study, Cronbach's alpha for social worry obtained 0.85, health concern 0.80 and for meta-thought was 0.87. ... [15]. Both groups completed anxiety questionnaire in the pre-test. Then, the experimental group underwent interventional group therapy for reducing anxious thoughts. After 8 sessions of group therapy, a post-test was performed for the control and experimental groups. The research therapeutic method was MBSR. It is based on the Kabat-Zinn method and is performed in eight 150-min sessions [16]. The treatment sessions focused on learning and practice on the two main skills, including focus and awareness and using these skills to acquire new emotional management and interpersonal skills. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20 software using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to examine the normal distribution of variables, Levene’s test to assess homogeneity of variances, multivariate covariance analysis to examine the difference between the mean scores in the groups and the Bonferroni post-hoc test to examine the difference between pre-test and post-test.

The age range of participants in the research was 33-64 years and they had third grade of secondary school to the Master’s educational degrees. The mean age of the experimental and control groups was 40.0 ± 5.7 and 44.0 ± 7.9 years, respectively. 32.1% had third grade of secondary school education, 39.3% had a diploma, 21.4% had a bachelor's degree, and 7.1% had a master's degree or above. By controlling the effects of pre-test, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the dimensions of the anxiety thoughts in the experimental and control groups in the post-test stage. There was a significant difference between the mean scores of health worry and meta-thought in the experimental and control groups, but there was no significant difference between the mean scores of social worry in the experimental and control groups (Table 1).

... [17, 18]. Cognitive-behavioral therapy and MBSR reduction of mindfulness-based stress on 108 patients with social anxiety disorder showed that 12 sessions of MBSR led to a decrease in social anxiety and increased reviewing (changing thinking style) and concentration. The results of MBSR on students showed that this model reduces worries by increasing the quality of problem solving and reducing negative evaluations [20]. Mindfulness meditation improves mood and its short-term training reduces anxiety and fatigue [21]. Training mindfulness is effective on depression and anxiety and psychological adjustment [22] and leads to improvement of symptoms of stress and self-esteem [23]. Based on a research by Evans et al. in the United States, 8 sessions of MBSR treatment significantly reduced the symptoms of anxiety, anger, and depression in the participants [24]. ... [25-27].

Due to the effectiveness of MBSR treatment and also the usefulness of this method for anxiety thoughts, the widespread use of this treatment is recommended for veterans and their families.

In this study, only the questionnaire was used, which is not accurate enough to evaluate the variables.

Reducing MBSR decreases the anxious thoughts of wives of veterans with amputation.

The authors are thankful to Ahwaz Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs and the families of veterans participating in this research for their cooperation.

None declared.

The essential permissions were obtained from the Shahid Chimran University of Ahwaz and also Ahwaz Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs and the sample were selected. They were informed about the research sessions, objectives, the needed time and the possible disadvantages and benefits and they also were assured of the confidentiality of information.

This research is extracted from a PhD thesis on psychology in the Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz.

TABLES and CHARTS

Show attach file


CITIATION LINKS

[1]Donald A. What is quality of life? Health Econ. 2009;1(9):1-6.
[2]Devereux PG, Bullock CC, Bargmann-Losche J, Kyriakou M. Maintaining support in people with paralysis: What works? Qual Health Res. 2005;15(10):1360-76.
[3]Sadeghi M, Shafiei M, Mobasher A. The effect of cognitive self-compassion focused therapy on cognitive flexibility, meaning in life in people who have gone mine. Iran J War Public Health. 2018;10(2):61-7. [Persian]
[4]Yavari A, Esfandiari E, Masoumi M, Saeedi H, Allami M. Consideration of chronic pain and current prosthetic satisfaction in above knee amputees. Iran J War Public Health. 2011;3(2):53-8. [Persian]
[5]Ebrahimi A, Bolhari J, Zolfaghari F. Stress coping strategies and social support in depressive veterans with spinal cord injury. Iran J Psychiatry Clin Psychol. 2002;8(2):40-8. [Persian]
[6]Amiri M, Bordbar S, Kateb Z. Comparison of the mental status of working spouses of spinal cord injured veterans with working spouses of normal people. J Psychol. 2005;9(1):22-33. [Persian]
[7]Fresco DM, Frankel AN, Mennin DS, Turk CL, Heimberg RG. Distinct and overlapping features of rumination and worry: The relationship of cognitive production to negative affective states. Cogn Ther Res. 2002;26(2):179-88.
[8]Wells A. Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: A practice manual and conceptual guide. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 2013.
[9]Ruscio AM, Borkovec TD. Experience and appraisal of worry among high worriers with and without generalized anxiety disorder. Behav Res Ther. 2004;42(12):1469-82.
[10]Wells A. Meta-cognition and worry: A cognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder. Behav and cogn psychother. 1995;23(3):301-20.
[11]Wells A. Emotional disorders and metacognition: Innovative cognitive therapy. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 2002.
[12]Garland E, Gaylord S, Park J. The role of mindfulness in positive reappraisal. Explore. 2009;5(1):37-44.
[13]Toneatto T, Nguyen L. Does mindfulness meditation improve anxiety and mood symptoms? A review of the controlled research. The Can J Psychiatry. 2007;52(4):260-6.
[14]Crane R. Mindfulness based cognitive therapy. 1st Edition. New York: Routledge press; 2009.
[15]Fata L, Mootabi F, Moloudi R, Ziyaei K. Psychometric adequacy Persian version control thought and anxious thoughts in Iranian students. J Psychol Models Methods. 2010;1(1):81-104. [Persian]
[16]Kabat‐Zinn J. Mindfulness‐based interventions in context: past, present, and future. Clin Psychol Sci pract. 2003;10(2):144-56.
[17]Hazlett-Stevens H. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for comorbid anxiety and depression: case report and clinical considerations. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2012;200(11):999-1003.
[18]Maxwell L, Duff E. Mindfulness: an effective prescription for depression and anxiety. J Nurse Pract. 2016;12(6):403-9.
[19]Goldin PR, Morrison AS, Jazaieri H, Heimberg RG, Gross JJ. Trajectories of social anxiety, cognitive reappraisal, and mindfulness during an RCT of CBGT versus MBSR for social anxiety disorder. Behav Res Ther. 2017;97:1-3.
[20]Sugiura Y. Detached mindfulness and worry: a meta-cognitive analysis. Pers Individ Differ. 2004;37(1):169-79.
[21]Zeidan F, Johnson SK, Diamond BJ, David Z, Goolkasian P. Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training. Conscious Cogn. 2010;19(2):597-605.
[22]Bohlmeijer E, Prenger R, Taal E, Cuijpers P. The effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy on mental health of adults with a chronic medical disease: a meta-analysis. J Psychosom Res. 2010;68(6):539-44.
[23]Goldin PR, Gross JJ. Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder. Emotion. 2010;10(1):83-91.
[24]Evans S, Ferrando S, Findler M, Stowell C, Smart C, Haglin D. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. J Anxiety Disord. 2008;22(4):716-21.
[25]Neff K. Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self Identity. 2003;2(2):85-101.
[26]Junkin SE. Yoga and self-esteem: exploring change in middle-age women [Dissertation]. Saskatoon, Canada: University of Saskatchewan; 2007.
[27]Mace C. Mindfulness and mental health: therapy, theory and science. New York: Routledge; 2007.