Mechanism of Mindfulness-Based Online Intervention in Enhancing Cognitive Flexibility

Mechanism of Mindfulness-Based Online Intervention in Enhancing Cognitive Flexibility: Thoughts as Thoughts

Traditional offline interventions such as MBCT and MBSR have been implemented to treat patients with emotional disorders and obtained significantly improved clinical outcomes. However, these offline interventions require the involvement of a therapist expert in mindfulness and usually charge a high fee, which may not be accessible and cost-effective for lots of patients with psychological disorders. Fortunately, online self-help interventions can compensate for these disadvantages. Our research team has developed a self-help online mindfulness program targeting emotional distress (i.e., iMIED), which has been effective for individuals with emotional distress in a preliminary study. Since patients with emotional disorders usually suffer from emotional distress, the current study will apply this program to these patients, and investigate its auxiliary effects on patients' psychological and physical health.

The primary aim of the current study is to evaluate the effectiveness of iMIED for patients with emotional disorders. To do so, we will use a design in which patients who receive online mindfulness training (iMIED) except for treatment as usual (TAU) will be compared with patients who receive TAU alone. We expect the intervention to improve patients' psychopathological symptoms reported by the patients and the clinicians or the research team and increase their overall functioning, positive mental health, and physical health compared to TAU. In addition, previous studies have shown that mindfulness interventions improve psychological symptoms by improving cognitive flexibility. Therefore, the secondary aim of the study is to examine the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility on the relationships between mindfulness practice and improvements in outcome variables, and further explore the mechanism behind it.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subjects with scores greater than 21 on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Subjects who could not access the Internet;
• Subjects with insufficient Chinese ability;
• Subjects who have participated in mindfulness based projects for more than 6 weeks before, and / or the current frequency of meditation practice is more than once a week;
• Patients with schizophrenia or psychotic affective disorder, current organic mental disorder, substance abuse disorder and generalized developmental disorder;
• Subjects at risk of suicide.