The effectiveness of mindfulness training on rumination and social anxiety in women with obsession

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a serious, debilitating but treatable disease. Ruminations and social anxiety are common psychological problems in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The effectiveness of mindfulness training has been proven in various domains, but has been neglected the rumination and social anxiety in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This study was conducted aiming to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness training on the rumination in women with  obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This study was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. Among women with  obsessive-compulsive disorder referring to the clinics  of the city of Tehran in the first half of the year 2019, 30 people were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly assignes to experimental and control groups. Participants completed Nolen Hoxma and Morrow (1993) Rumination Scale and Connor et al. (2000) Social Anxiety Scale. Mindfulness training sessions (Kabat-Zinn, 2003) were implemented for experimental group in eight 90-minute sessions, but no intervention was provided for the control group. The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance.

Results showed that mindfulness training reduced rumination and social anxiety in the experimental group (p<0/05).

Mindfulness training can be used to reduce rumination and social anxiety in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.