Effectiveness of mindfulness therapy on executive functions and cognitive fusion of adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a serious disorder which damages adolescents’ other psychological and cognitive processes too. The present study was conducted aiming at investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy on executive function and cognitive fusion in the adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest design and a control group and two-month follow-up stage. The statistical population of the present study included adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Isfahan City in academic year 2017-18. 30 adolescents with OCD were selected via purposive non-random sampling method and were randomly placed into experiment and control groups. The experiment group received 10 seventy-five-minute sessions of mindfulness interventions during three months. The applied questionnaires included Moudzli’s OCD Questionnaire (1980), Executive Functions Questionnaire (1980) and Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (2010). The data from the study were analyzed through repeated measurement ANOVA. The results showed that mindfulness therapy has significantly influenced executive functions and cognitive fusion of the adolescents with OCD (p<0/001). According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that mindfulness therapy can be used as an effective treatment for improving executive functions and reducing cognitive fusion in adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.