Outcomes of MBSR or MBSR-based interventions in health care providers: A systematic review with a focus on empathy and emotional competencies

Abstract

High quality evidence is available on the effect of MBSR on professionals' mental health. However, while some emotional competencies have been identified as being of major importance for high quality care, they are still scarcely studied. Studying these outcomes is important, as it may help explain how mindfulness contributes to professionals' mental health and thus help develop targeted interventions.

Improving Communication between Physicians and Their Patients through Mindfulness and Compassion-Based Strategies: A Narrative Review

“…In a recent revision by Lamothe et al [69], they identify a number of MBSR-based studies reporting an increase in emotional competencies of major importance for high quality care, including emotional acceptance, the identification of one’s own emotions, empathy, and self-compassion. However, there is a paucity of results on these variables.…”

“…A reasonable hypothesis would be that mindfulness-compassion meditation helps psychotherapists and clinicians self-regulate their emotions while they are attuned to their client’s suffering, reducing the burnout linked to empathetic distress or fatigue, and enhancing concern for others, altruism, and a more genuine empathetic communication [64,69,89]. Functional and structural MRI studies show consistent changes following mindfulness meditation training in core regions associated with the self-regulation of attention and emotion, including the anterior cingulate cortex, and the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex [76,87].…”

“…Additionally, well-designed, rigorous, and large-scale RCTs are necessary to decisively provide estimates of the efficacy of mindfulness and compassion-based interventions for enhancing empathy, compassionate care, and improving physician-patient communication. Future studies will need to incorporate some methodological improvements [40,69,103], including: Sufficient sample size.Randomized control trials.The use of clinical samples, or patients needing the intervention.Using not only physicians’ reports, but also patients’ reports and clinical outcomes.The inclusion of emotional competencies as outcome variablesMeasuring the effectiveness of shortened versions of mindfulness programs.Research on the nature of compassion and its implications in clinical practice with patientsVerifying mediating mechanisms and communication pathways.The use of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.Evaluating the extent to which medical students and physicians utilize the MBIs available at their institutions, or the extent to which mindfulness courses are required versus elective onesLongitudinal studies and active follow-ups.…”

Effects of a Mindfulness Based Intervention on Psychological Distress and Romantic Relationships: Results of a Pilot Study

“…Summarizing the above literature indicates that mindfulness has proven to be effective and beneficial for a range of problems as well for clinical as for non-clinical populations [3,11,12,17,21,32].…”

“…The bulk of the evidence supports the benefits of MBSR in mentally and physically ill patients, whilst recently increasing attention focused on the benefits this practice might have on healthy people [16]. Studies on non-clinical populations show that mindfulness increases self-compassion, positive affection, quality of life and well-being and reduces rumination, somatization, anxiety, negative emotions, stress symptoms and aggression [16][17][18][19][20][21]. The MBSR intervention helped to reduce stress among nurses [22], therapists in training [23], and university students [18].…”