The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Negative Self-Representations in Social Anxiety Disorder-A Randomized Wait-List Controlled Trial

Abstract

This study examines the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) vs. wait list (WL) on the self-reference effect involving negative adjectives in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Eighty-five participants with SAD were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of MBSR or WL and completed an incidental SRE task that assessed treatment-related negative self-representations. Self-related negative adjectives were worse remembered in MBSR than in WL, and other-related negative adjectives were better remembered in MBSR than in WL. No differences emerged between the levels of self- and other-related processing for adjectives in MBSR. Moreover, the MBSR-related decreases in the difference in recognition memory performance between self and other conditions, that is, the treatment-related equilibrium, could predict the MBSR-related decreases in social anxiety symptoms. The selfless functioning and self-other control that can provide reasonable interpretations for these findings were discussed.

Keywords: mindfulness; other-related processing; self-related processing; self-representations; social anxiety.

Figure 1

Flowchart of study participants.

Figure 2

Memory performance at Pretreatment vs. Post-treatment on self and other conditions for mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) (left) and wait list (WL) (right). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.