New Developments in Research on Mindfulness-Based Treatments: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

It has been more than 30 years since the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School pioneered the introduction of mindfulness meditation into mainstream health care. In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn first offered an eight-session, group-based mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1990) program teaching a secularized version of Buddhist mindfulness meditation practices to help reduce the suffering of individuals with intractable chronic pain. Since then, tens of thousands of individuals have participated in mindfulness-based programs across five continents (http://www.umassmed.edu/content. aspx?id = 41252). Moreover, the clinical scope of MBSR has broadened significantly to include treatment of a wide range of physical disorders and, by significantly contributing to the development of mindfulness-based psychological interventions, to several mental disorders as well. For example, variants of the MBSR program, such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002), and other mindfulness-based treatments, such as dialectical behavior therapy (Linehan, 1993) and acceptance and commitment therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), have been specifically designed to help individuals suffering from psychological problems. Mindfulness related research has also increased dramatically. For example, more than 600 mindfulness-related manuscripts were published as of 2006 (Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007). Furthermore, Shapiro (2009) notes that more than 260 mindfulness-based scientific articles have been published on mindfulness in the psychological literature. Initially, mindfulness research was focused primarily on evaluating the efficacy of mindfulness-based treatments in reducing physical and psychological symptoms. These efforts, summarized in several reviews (e.g., Baer, 2003; Bishop, 2002; Brown et al., 2007; Coelho, Canter, & Ernst, 2007; Grossman, Nieman, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004; Toneatto & Nguyen, 2007), have helped to confirm the value of mindfulness-based interventions for a wide range of disorders. Furthermore, in a few cases, the evidence has been sufficiently compelling to support the inclusion of mindfulness-based interventions in treatment guidelines. For example, MBCT is now recommended as a treatment for recurrent depression in the United Kingdom's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2004) guidelines. Approximately 10 years ago, the focus of mindfulness research began to expand to include an interest in investigating the mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based treatment outcomes and more recently to a focus on moderators of treatment response. This special issue focuses on new developments that make up the expanding envelope of mindfulness-based psychological research. Briefly, the articles in this issue include the description and validation of a trait version of the Toronto Mindfulness Scale (Lau et al., 2006), an exploration of the mechanisms underlying the association between increased mindfulness and psychological adjustment, an investigation of whether practicing mindfulness between sessions contributes to symptom improvement, a study of the neural mechanisms underlying increased mindfulness in social anxiety disorder (SAD), and finally an evaluation of whether attachment style moderates participant response to MBSR. The shift in focus from mindfulness treatment to process research was initially hampered by the lack of an operational mindfulness definition and a concomitant mindfulness assessment tool. This gap was subsequently closed with the development of several self-report mindfulness measures, including the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI; Buchheld, Grossman, & Walach, 2001), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003), the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS; Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004), the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R; Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, & Laurenceau, 2007), the Southhampton Mindfulness Questionnaire (SMQ; Chadwick et al. …