Depression and Anxiety

A preliminary study on the effects of mindfulness on binge eating, conducted at the University of New Mexico, found not only a decline in binge eating, but also a decline in state anxiety and depressive symptoms. Anxiety was assessed using the State Anxiety scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983). This scale includes a measure of current anxiety symptoms. Higher levels of anxiety are associated with higher scores. Cronbach’s alpha for this measure was .88 at baseline and .70 after the intervention.

A more comprehensive, randomized study on the effect of mindfulness on both mood and symptoms of stress in cancer patients found significant reduction in the sub-scales associated with Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Fatigue, Confusion and Total Mood Disturbance (using the Profile Of Mood States [POMS] instrument pre- and post-intervention). Significant improvements were found on the Vigor sub-scale. Ninety patients completed this study which utilized a 7-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. The table below shows percentage decreases on each of the subscales (except Vigor, where a positive change indicates an increase in that measurement).

Profile of Mood States (POMS) Percentage Change in Scores from Inception to Completion of 7-Week Intervention
(table)

The Symptoms of Stress Inventory instrument (SOSI) was used on this same population prior to the 7-week MBSR course and immediately following. The results are interesting because, in addition to significant improvements of the treatment group on the Depression, Anxiety, and Emotional Irritability subscales, test subjects showed measurable positive change in physical and behavioral responses to stressful situations. In particular, the Habitual Patterns of Stress subscale showed a decrease in habitual responses to stress of 26% in the treatment group while decreasing only 3% for the control group. This is particularly relevant to bariatric surgery patients and to the overweight/obese population, in general. Studies have shown stress is a significant contributor to habitual eating behaviors including increased food consumed as snacks , increased fat and sugar intake, and reduced fiber intake . A summary of the percentage changes in the SOSI subscales, as well as the change in the Total Stress Score, for the Treatment and Control groups is shown below.

Symptoms of Stress Inventory (SOSI) Percentage Change in Scores from Inception to Completion of 7-Week Intervention
(table)