The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training on Reducing Rumination and Enhancing Resilience in Female Patients with Breast Cancer: a Randomized Trial

Increased rumination and reduced resilience are psychological difficulties that are experienced by women with breast cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness training on enhancing resilience and reducing rumination in women patients with breast cancer.
The design of this randomized trial was pretest-posttest with the control group. The study sample included 40 women with breast cancer. Patients, who met entry requirements to design, randomly assigned into two intervention and control groups. Both groups completed rumination and resilience questionnaires. The intervention group received eight sessions of mindfulness training. After completing the course, posttest was conducted for both intervention and control groups.
Comparison of the two groups using t-test, showed that there are significant difference between the two groups in terms of resilience (t=5.22, P= 0/01) and rumination (t=-6.21, P= 0/01). In other words, mindfulness training was effective in increasing resilience and reducing rumination.
The findings suggest that mindfulness training can be considered as an effective intervention to increase resilience and reduce rumination in women with breast cancer. It is necessary to examine the efficacy of the intervention with other psychological variables.