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Episodic future thinking (EFT) refers to the mental simulation of future events that might be personally-experienced; a crucial mental process in adaptation. Psychiatric disorders are associated with deficits in recalling episodic memory, however, no study has reviewed the empirical literature to assess for similar deficits in EFT. A systematic review comparing psychiatric groups with control groups on the specificity and episodic detail of EFT returned 19 eligible studies. An overall effect of g = -0.84 (95%CI = -1.06, - 0.62, p < .001) indicated individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis have significantly less specific and detailed EFT. Publication bias was not detected, but heterogeneity was. No methodological characteristics were significant moderators. Subgroup analyses showed significant effects for depression (g = -0.79, p < .001, k = 7), bipolar disorder (g = -1.00, p < .001, k = 2), and schizophrenia (g = -1.06, p < .001, k = 6), but not posttraumatic stress disorder (g = -1.04, p = .260, k = 2) or complicated grief (g = -0.41, p = .08, k = 2). Deficits in EFT are apparent in some psychiatric disorders. However, many clinical groups are understudied, and the causal mechanisms and remediation of these deficits require further research attention.

Research has shown that how well people can differentiate between different emotional states is an essential requirement for adaptive emotion regulation. People with low levels of emotion differentiation tend to be more vulnerable to develop emotional disorders. Although we know quite a lot about the correlates of emotion differentiation, research on factors or interventions which could improve emotion differentiation skills is scarce. Here, we hypothesize, and study empirically, whether a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) may impact the differentiation of negative and positive emotions. A within-subjects pre-, post-, and follow-up design involving experience sampling was used. At each phase participants reported their current emotions and mindfulness skills up to 40 times across 4 consecutive days using smartphones. Multilevel modeling showed a significant improvement in negative emotion differentiation postintervention and at 4 months of follow-up, and a significant improvement in positive emotion differentiation at 4 months follow-up. The improvement in negative emotion differentiation, however, was no longer significant when controlling for levels of negative affect. A time-lagged mediation model showed that posttreatment changes in mindfulness skills mediated subsequent changes in negative emotion differentiation, also when controlling for levels of negative affect. These results suggest that MBI is a promising approach to improve people's emotion differentiation skills.

MBI is a promising approach that is used to treat emotional distress and to improve QoL in AYAC survivors. Further research using randomized controlled trials is needed to generalize these findings. Trial registration information: www.trialregister.nl ; NTR4358.

Background Many breast cancer survivors suffer from cognitive complaints after cancer treatment, affecting their quality of life. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of a blended‐care mindfulness‐based intervention (MBI) on chemotherapy‐related cognitive impairment and functional brain changes. Furthermore, correlations between changes in cognitive functioning and self‐reported behavioral factors were investigated. Methods Breast cancer survivors (n = 33) who reported cognitive impairment were randomly allocated to a mindfulness condition (n = 18) or a waitlist control condition (n = 15). Patients completed questionnaires on cognitive impairment, emotional distress, and fatigue; neuropsychological tests; and resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging before the start of MBI (time 1 [T1]), immediately after the completion of an 8‐week MBI program (T2), and 3 months postintervention (T3). Resting‐state functional connectivity was estimated in the default mode network, the dorsal and salience attention networks, and the frontoparietal network. Mixed model repeated‐measures analysis was performed to test the intervention effect. Results Patients in the mindfulness condition exhibited significantly higher connectivity between the dorsal and salience attention networks after the mindfulness intervention compared with those in the control condition. MBI participants also had reduced subjective cognitive impairment, emotional distress, and fatigue. No intervention effect was observed on neurocognitive tests. Conclusions MBI may induce functional brain changes in networks related to attention and may have a positive effect on subjective measures of cognitive impairment in breast cancer survivors. Therefore, MBI could be a suitable intervention to improve quality of life in this population and deserves further study in this context.