Investigating the role of acceptance, mindfulness and values in patients with psychosis in the context of depression. (1st September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gaudiano, Brandon; Primack, Jennifer; Miller, Ivan
• Is Part Of: Journal of psychiatric intensive care. Volume 12:Number 2(2016)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 87
• Publication Date: 2016-09-01
• Subjects: Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Intensive care units -- Periodicals; Mental health services -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 362.21
• DOI: 10.20299/jpi.2016.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-6464

Abstract

Background: Emerging research suggests that interventions incorporating acceptance, mindfulness and values clarification elements are efficacious when treating patients experiencing major depression with psychotic features. However, there is little research on how these psychological constructs relate to symptoms and functioning in this population to guide future intervention efforts.Method: Patients with psychotic symptoms (hallucinations and/or delusions) occurring in the context of a major depressive episode (N = 29) were recruited primarily during a psychiatric hospitalisation and assessed using a battery of self-report and interviewer-rated measures.Results: Psychological acceptance was correlated with hallucination severity, behavioural activation and family functioning; mindfulness was correlated with depression severity and behavioural activation; and values-action consistency was correlated with family functioning. Significant associations between clinical variables and acceptance, mindfulness and values, remained in most cases in multivariate analyses after controlling for the presence of the other variables and accounted for large amounts of variance.Conclusions: Although requiring future replication due to the sample size, findings support the conclusion that acceptance, mindfulness and values appear to have meaningful and somewhat unique associations with important aspects of symptoms and functioning in individuals with psychotic depression. Potential treatment targets and mechanisms of psychosocial interventions are discussed.