The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Intervention for Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Reactivity in Patients with Epilepsy

The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention on cognitive emotion regulation and cognitive reactivity in patients suffering from epilepsy. The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which 24 epilepsy patients, administered by the Isfahan Epilepsy Society in Iran, were recruited through the convenient sampling method in 2015. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental (N = 12) and control (N = 12). The control group was as waitlist. In addition to the demographic information, Garnefski's Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2001), Beck's Depression (1979), Dysfunctional Attitudes (1978), and Automatic Thoughts (1980) were administered to the patients in three stages encompassing pretest, posttest, and the follow-up period (75 days). The collected data were then analyzed with repeated measurement of variance ANOVA. Results showed that MBSR intervention significantly increased the use of positive strategies and decreased the implementation of negative strategies in cognitive emotional regulation (p < 0.05). Moreover, the intervention led to a significant decline in depression, dysfunctional attitudes, and negative automatic thoughts. The results support the idea that mindfulness could positively affect the patient's cognitive emotion regulation and cognitive responsiveness.