Researchers from Boston University conducted an effect size analysis of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) for anxiety and mood symptoms in clinical samples. The meta-analysis was based on 39 studies totaling 1,140 participants receiving mindfulness-based therapy for a range of conditions, including cancer, generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and other psychiatric or medical conditions.
 
Effect size estimates suggest that mindfulness-based therapy was moderately effective for improving anxiety (Hedges's g = 0.63) and mood symptoms (Hedges's g = 0.59) from pre- to posttreatment in the overall sample.

We found this note posted on our Weight Loss page. It’s very encouraging for anyone currently doing battle with his/her own body over weight issues.  Here it is:

“This CD was sent to me by a friend at one of the lowest points in my life.  Although I was once healthy and active, after my father's death and a couple of other major life changes, I found myself 100 pounds overweight, compulsively bingeing, anxiety ridden/severely depressed and unable to do anything about it.

Therese Borchard has made some terrific Youtube videos for her blog, Beyond Blue.  This one features Laura Oliver, her writing teacher, talking about Writing to Fill a Hole in the Soul. And I love what she has to say about jealousy!   

If you enjoy this video, check out the others on humor, anxiety and letting go that appear along the right side of the page. 

Researchers from the Integrative Medicine Program at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons gathered preliminary information regarding the feasibility of implementing a brief meditation-based stress management (MBSM) program for patients with CHD, and those at high risk for CHD, at a major metropolitan hospital that serves a predominately non-local patient population. The secondary aim of the study was to see if such an intervention could reduce depression, as well as perceived stress, anxiety, and hostility, while improving general health scores.

Question:  

Dear Ms. Naperstak [sic],
About a year ago, I was going contemplating leaving my marriage (which I eventually did) and I was very depressed.  I used your guided imagery CD   which was of some help.  I have since had ups and downs and right now am quite down again.  However, using the CD now actually brings me back to last year when I was at my lowest instead of helping me.  I cannot listen to the CD without it bringing up very bad memories now.  Any suggestions?  Thanks.
Donald

We thought, given the terrible situation in Haiti, it might be useful to post the results of this classic study of survivors of the great Turkish earthquake of 1999, which points to what makes survivors more vulnerable to PTSD.  Subsequent surveys from China, Japan, Italy, El Salvador and Iceland support these findings. , Additional factors appear to be dislocation, subsequent financial difficulties, disruption of social networks, injury, the intensity of fear and/or presence of dissociation at the time of the trauma. Loss of family and friends appear to be more associated with depression rather than posttraumatic stress.  Difficulties appear to be fairly longstanding, according to most of these surveys.

Researchers from King's College at the University of London in the UK examined the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in 586 earthquake survivors living in prefabricated housing, an average of 20 months after the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey. 

Dear Belleruth,

I have been listening to the Guided Imagery CD, Combat Depression, for a month now, everyday.  I have gotten very emotional during the part where a being enters your thoughts and touches you in a deep spiritual way.  I cry, sob, tense up, get really emotional and then the CD  (after a few minutes) has the being leave saying that you can call on him/her at any time, it is YOU that come and go, and suddenly you feel better for this...... Meanwhile I feel like crap - I don't feel better - I am now an emotional wreck.  What am I doing wrong or what can I do to suddenly feel better for doing this?  Please help.

Lucy

Investigators from the Coimbra Nursing School in Coimbra, Portugal and the University of Akron’s College of Nursing reported on the efficacy of a guided imagery intervention for decreasing depression, anxiety, and stress and increasing comfort in psychiatric inpatients with depressive disorders.

A quasi-experimental design sampled 60 short-term hospitalized patients suffering from depression, selected consecutively. The experimental group listened to a guided imagery compact disk once a day for 10 days.

Dear Belleruth,

I have a question about your affirmations.  I have been listening to the Anger & Forgiveness affirmations. This CD (and others) includes the affirmation that "I can avoid re-injuring by myself with repeated visits to past wounds."

Yet, doesn't it sometimes make sense, to examine the past in order to overcome it? What is the difference between "repeated visits to past wounds" and confronting past pain in a therapeutic context?  Please clarify this issue for me as I find it somewhat confusing.

Thank you.
Mike