Peak experiences during insight mindfulness meditation retreats and their salutary and adverse impact: A prospective matched-controlled intervention study.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to address a growing debate regarding the adverse and salutary impact of unusual, extraordinary or intense subjective experiences during meditation-based interventions. To do so, we empirically characterized such peak experiences during an intensive meditation intervention and their impact postintervention. METHOD: We conducted a preregistered prospective intervention study among 96 adults who registered for 6-day insight (Vipassana) mindfulness meditation retreats and 47 matched controls. Controls were selected from a pool of 543 people recruited from the same community of meditators as retreat participants and systematically matched to retreat participants on age and lifetime meditation experience. Measures included the novel Peak Meditative Experience Scale and the Impact of PMES. RESULTS: Seventeen peak experiences that were primarily pleasant (e.g., deep and unusual peace, aha! Moment) occurred more frequently among retreat participants than among matched controls in daily living (ps < .05; mean ϕ = .33). In contrast, 14 peak experiences that were mostly unpleasant (e.g., flashbacks, overwhelming sadness) occurred at similar rates in both groups (ps > .05). At 2-week follow-up, the perceived impact of all pleasant and most unpleasant peak experiences was more salutary than adverse (ps ≤ .015; M Cohen's d = 1.61). CONCLUSIONS: Peak experiences that resulted from meditation retreats were primarily pleasant and had a large salutary impact postretreat. Inconsistent with conclusions from uncontrolled retrospective studies, findings document that intensive insight mindfulness meditation training in retreats may not contribute to unpleasant peak experiences and even when they occurred their impact was typically more salutary than adverse. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Vulnerabilities in social anxiety: Integrating intra- and interpersonal perspectives.

What are the major vulnerabilities in people with social anxiety? What are the most promising directions for translational research pertaining to this condition? The present paper provides an integrative summary of basic and applied translational research on social anxiety, emphasizing vulnerability factors. It is divided into two subsections: intrapersonal and interpersonal. The intrapersonal section synthesizes research relating to (a) self-representations and self-referential processes; (b) emotions and their regulation; and (c) cognitive biases: attention, interpretation and judgment, and memory. The interpersonal section summarizes findings regarding the systems of (a) approach and avoidance, (b) affiliation and social rank, and their implications for interpersonal impairments. Our review suggests that the science of social anxiety and, more generally, psychopathology may be advanced by examining processes and their underlying content within broad psychological systems. Increased interaction between basic and applied researchers to diversify and elaborate different perspectives on social anxiety is necessary for progress.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder in intergenerational trauma transmission among Eritrean asylum-seeking mother-child dyads.

Background: Traumatic stress among forcibly displaced people has a variety of adverse consequences beyond individual mental health, including implications for poor socioemotional developmental outcomes for their children post-displacement.Objective: This study explored the intergenerational transmission of maternal ICD-11 Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and depression among asylum-seeking mothers for their children's internalizing and externalizing difficulties.Method: Participants were 127 trauma-affected Eritrean mothers of preschool-aged children in Israel. The severity of child difficulties was compared between mothers with probable ICD-11 CPTSD (94.5% comorbid depression), ICD-11 PTSD (48.5% comorbid depression), unimorbid depression, and healthy mothers, using multivariate analyses of variance, while controlling for children's direct exposure to adverse life experiences.Results: Probable ICD-11 CPTSD and PTSD were present in 23.6% and 26.0% of mothers, respectively. Relative to maternal PTSD, CPTSD was significantly and strongly associated with elevated child internalizing symptoms (d = 2.44) and marginally significantly, although strongly, associated with child externalizing symptoms (d = 1.30). Post-hoc exploratory analyses documented that, relative to maternal PTSD and depression, CPTSD and depression comorbidity was marginally significantly but strongly associated with child internalizing (SMD = .67), but not externalizing symptoms (SMD = .35).Conclusions: Findings implicate maternal CPTSD and comorbid depression in child socio-emotional development and inform clinical assessment, prevention, and intervention to attenuate poor development among children in unstable post-displacement settings.

Trauma among forcibly displaced people has a variety of aversive multisystemic consequences, compromising the socioemotional development of non-exposed children.ICD-11 complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and comorbid depression may be functionally important to elevated risk for maternal intergenerational trauma transmission, even relative to ICD-11 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).To effectively attenuate intergenerational transmission of trauma post-displacement, efforts and resources should be invested in maternal mental health care as well as socio-culturally adapted, trauma-sensitive parenting training.

Looking inside the black box of mindfulness meditation: Investigating attention and awareness during meditation using the mindful awareness task (MAT).

Training attention and awareness in mindfulness meditation is theorized to be essential for the cultivation of mindfulness and its salutary outcomes. Yet, the empirical foundation for this central premise in mindfulness science is surprisingly small due to a limited methodological capacity to measure attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation. Accordingly, we set out to measure and study these processes in a laboratory study (N = 143, 76.92% female) using a novel behavioral measurement paradigm-the mindful awareness task (MAT). We empirically characterized attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation and found novel behavioral evidence indicating that, as long-theorized, these processes were related to previous mindfulness meditation practice, attitudinal qualities of mindfulness, attention regulation, and mental health. Furthermore, we found that the accuracy of self-reported mindfulness was, paradoxically, dependent on behavioral capacities for mindful awareness; and that sustained visual attention and executive functions, measured via cognitive-experimental tasks, were not meaningfully related to attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation. In contrast, the MAT demonstrated sound psychometric performance as a measure of mindful awareness, and may overcome significant limitations of extant mindfulness measurement methods. Collectively, findings challenge conceptual and methodological assumptions in mindfulness science, provide a novel paradigmatic direction for research on mindfulness, and present long-awaited evidence that attention and awareness during mindfulness meditation may indeed be fundamental to its practice, cultivation, and salutary functions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

COVID-19 and Mental Health Among People Who Are Forcibly Displaced: The Role of Socioeconomic Insecurity.

OBJECTIVE: Forcibly displaced persons may be at elevated risk for poor mental health outcomes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to examine associations between COVID-19-related socioeconomic insecurity and mental health outcomes among asylum seekers. METHODS: The authors evaluated the association between the degree of food, housing, and income insecurity related to the pandemic and mental health outcomes among East African asylum seekers in a high-risk, postdisplacement setting in the Middle East (i.e., Israel). RESULTS: Anxiety symptom severity (p=0.03) as well as the rate of suicidal ideation among women (odds ratio [OR]=2.81, p=0.016) were significantly elevated in a community sample of asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic (N=66) relative to a similar sample (N=158) from the same community and context assessed before the pandemic. No differences between the two groups were observed for severity or rate of probable depression or posttraumatic stress disorders. In addition, among the sample assessed during the pandemic, socioeconomic insecurity due to the pandemic was strongly associated with elevated symptom severity and probable anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorders as well as suicidal ideation (R2 range=0.19-0.35; OR range=4.54-5.46). CONCLUSIONS: Findings are consistent with growing evidence of a mental health crisis among asylum seekers that is linked to COVID-19 control policies and residential status policies. The results highlight the risk for suicidal ideation linked to intersectional marginalization among female asylum seekers. These findings may inform postdisplacement policy making, social justice advocacy, humanitarian aid, and clinical science and practice to mitigate poor mental health outcomes associated with COVID-19 among forcibly displaced persons.

Effect of mindfulness-based trauma recovery for refugees on shame and guilt in trauma recovery among African asylum-seekers.

We sought to, first, better understand the role of emotional responding, and specifically shame and guilt, in trauma recovery among asylum-seekers following forced displacement; and, second, to explore whether therapeutic effects of a mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention on trauma recovery among asylum-seekers are mediated by therapeutic effects of the intervention on shame and guilt. Study aims were tested through a randomized waitlist-controlled trial of a 9-week Mindfulness-Based Trauma Recovery for Refugees program among a community sample of 158 Eritrean asylum-seekers (55.7% female) residing in an unstable high-risk urban postdisplacement setting in the Middle East (Israel). First, in a cross-product test of parallel mediation, we found that shame, but not guilt, mediated the preintervention associations between traumatic stress exposure history, as well as current postmigration living difficulties, and current posttraumatic stress (abShame = .035, 95% CI [.024, .048], abShame = .183, 95% CI [.122, .249]) and depression (abShame = .384, 95% CI [.234, .55], abShame = .405, 95% CI [1.117, 2.693]) symptom severity. Second, in a linear mixed effects model of mediation, we found that reduced shame from pre- to postintervention, mediated the effect of MBTR-R, relative to waitlist control, on improved posttraumatic stress (ACMEShame = -.18, BCa 95% CI [-.34, -.04]) and depression (ACMEShame = -1.78, BCa 95% CI [-3.29, -.29]) symptom severity outcomes. Findings provide insight into the potential role of shame in trauma- and stress-related recovery among FDPs (forcibly displaced people). Findings indicate that mindfulness- and compassion-based training promotes trauma recovery, in part, through reducing feelings of shame postdisplacement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Candidate mechanisms of action of mindfulness-based trauma recovery for refugees (MBTR-R): Self-compassion and self-criticism.

OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions may represent a promising intervention approach to the global mental health crisis of forced displacement. Specifically, Mindfulness-Based Trauma Recovery for Refugees (MBTR-R)-a mindfulness- and compassion-based, trauma-sensitive, and socioculturally adapted intervention for refugees and asylum-seekers-has recently demonstrated randomized control evidence of therapeutic efficacy and safety. Yet, little is known about potential mechanisms underlying these therapeutic effects for trauma recovery and for refugees and asylum-seekers. METHOD: Thus, we examined adaptive and maladaptive forms of self-referentiality, namely self-compassion and self-criticism, as mechanisms of action for trauma recovery in a randomized wait-list control trial of MBTR-R among a community sample of 158 traumatized and chronically stressed asylum-seekers (46% female) in an urban postdisplacement setting (Middle East). Self-compassion and self-criticism were measured vis-à-vis an experimental Self-Referential Encoding Task (SRET) designed to quantify cognitive processes underlying self-compassion and self-criticism using diffusion modeling, a computational modeling approach to quantify cognitive processes underlying decision-making from behavioral reaction time data. RESULTS: Findings indicate that self-compassion and self-criticism were associated with trauma- and stress-related psychopathology at preintervention. Relative to wait-list controls, MBTR-R led to significant elevation in self-compassion, and reduction in self-criticism, from pre to postintervention. Finally, pre to postintervention change in self-criticism significantly mediated therapeutic effects of MBTR-R on depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) outcomes, while pre to postintervention change in self-compassion only mediated therapeutic effects on PTSD outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Findings speak to the importance of (mal)adaptive self-referentiality as a target mechanism in MBIs and trauma recovery broadly, and among refugees and asylum-seekers specifically. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

First, do no harm: An intensive experience sampling study of adverse effects to mindfulness training.

OBJECTIVE: The study of safety and adverse effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) is limited. We propose a novel reliable change index (RCI) approach to experience sampling (ES) data to begin to understand the common domains, frequency, severity, risk for, and context of adverse responding to mindfulness meditation practice and brief MBI. METHODS: Over the course of a 21-day MBI among 82 meditation-naïve participants, we estimated (i) momentary adverse effects during mindfulness meditation practice and (ii) sustained adverse effects in daily living following the intervention. RESULTS: First, RCI analyses of experience sampling of mindfulness meditation document that 87% of participants demonstrated at least one momentary adverse effect during meditation, most commonly anxiety; and subject-level temporal variability or instability in experience samples of daily living did not account for momentary adverse effects attributed to mindfulness meditation sessions. Second, 25% of participants experienced a sustained adverse effect in daily living at post-intervention. Yet, neither momentary adverse effects to meditation nor vulnerability factors at pre-intervention predicted adverse effects at post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Findings illustrate that mindfulness meditation may be transiently anxiogenic for many participants, yet, these experiences are unlikely to constitute objective harm per se. Furthermore, observed deterioration in daily living post-intervention cannot be attributed to momentary adverse effects in response to mindfulness meditation. We speculate that observed deterioration in daily living post-intervention may thus be better explained by increased awareness to internal states following mindfulness training. Findings highlight the potential utility of applying a RCI approach to intensive ES measurement to quantify adverse effects of mindfulness training specifically and mental health interventions broadly.

The Daily Dose-Response Hypothesis of Mindfulness Meditation Practice: An Experience Sampling Study.

OBJECTIVE: Because of fast-growing interest in the applications of mindfulness to promote well-being and mental health, there are field-wide efforts to better understand how mindfulness training works and thereby to optimize its delivery. Key to these efforts is the role of home practice in mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) outcomes. Despite its centrality in MBIs, recent reviews have documented limited and mixed effects of home practice on MBI outcomes. However, methodological issues regarding monitoring and quantifying home practice and focus on cumulative or additive effects may limit our understanding of it. Temporally proximate, more transient, and contextually circumscribed effects of mindfulness mediation practice have not been examined. METHODS: We applied intensive experience sampling to measure daily practice and levels of targeted proximal outcomes (state mindfulness, decentering, emotional valance, and arousal) of training over the course of a 21-day MBI among a community-based sample of 82 meditation-naive adults. RESULTS: Despite intensive experience sampling, we found no evidence of cumulative or additive effects of total mindfulness meditation practice on outcomes at postintervention for mindfulness, decentering, emotional valence, or emotional arousal. However, we found that that daily dose of mindfulness meditation home practice significantly predicted same-day levels of state mindfulness (B = 0.004, SE = 0.001, t = 3.17, p = .000, f2 = 0.24), decentering (B = 0.004, SE = 0.001, t = 2.757, p = .006, f2 = 0.05), and emotional valence (B = 0.006, SE = 0.003, t = 2.015, p = .044, f2 = 0.01) but not daily levels of emotional arousal. Daily dose-response practice effects did not carry over to next-day levels of monitored outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Findings show that effects of daily home mindfulness meditation practice dose on state mindfulness, decentering, and positive emotion are reliable but transient and time-limited. Findings are discussed with respect to the proposed daily dose-response hypothesis of mindfulness meditation practice.

Simulating thoughts to measure and study internal attention in mental health.

Our mind's eye and the role of internal attention in mental life and suffering has intrigued scholars for centuries. Yet, experimental study of internal attention has been elusive due to our limited capacity to control the timing and content of internal stimuli. We thus developed the Simulated Thoughts Paradigm (STP) to experimentally deliver own-voice thought stimuli that simulate the content and experience of thinking and thereby experimental study of internal attentional processes. In independent experiments (N = 122) integrating STP into established cognitive-experimental tasks, we found and replicated evidence that emotional reactivity to negative thoughts predicts difficulty disengaging internal attention from, as well as biased selective internal attention of, those thoughts; these internal attention processes predict cognitive vulnerability (e.g., negative repetitive thinking) which thereby predict anxiety and depression. Proposed methods and findings may have implications for the study of information processing and attention in mental health broadly and models of internal attentional (dys)control in cognitive vulnerability and mental health more specifically.

A Functional Network Perspective on Posttraumatic Stress in Refugees: Implications for Theory, Classification, Assessment, and Intervention.

There is an important, long-standing debate regarding the universality vs. specificity of trauma-related mental health symptoms in socio-culturally and linguistically diverse population groups, such as refugees and asylum seekers. Network theory, an emerging development in the field of psychological science, provides a novel data analytic methodology to evaluate and empirically examine long-standing questions about the structure and function of posttraumatic stress symptoms. We sought to empirically model the functional network of posttraumatic stress symptoms among East African refugees who survived multiple potentially traumatic events. A sample of 148 Sudanese and Eritrean male asylum seekers (M(SD)age = 32.60(7.13) were recruited from the community in Israel. The nature and function(s) of posttraumatic symptoms (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire) were modeled using regularized partial correlation models to derive a network of symptoms. Spinglass and exploratory graph analysis walktrap algorithms were then used to identify functional "circuits of symptoms" or clusters of nodes within the network. Analyses revealed a functional symptom circuitry that shares features with the predominant western model of posttraumatic stress disorder; as well as unique functional clusters of symptoms inconsistent with nosology and symptomatology observed in studies of Western populations. Findings may have important implications for theory, classification, assessment, candidate mechanisms that may drive and maintain posttraumatic stress, and in turn may inform prevention or treatment for socio-culturally diverse forcibly displaced population groups.

The Metacognitive Processes of Decentering Scale: Development and initial validation of trait and state versions.

The ability to decenter from internal experiences is important for mental health. Consequently, improving decentering is a common therapeutic target, particularly for mindfulness-based interventions. However, extant decentering measures are limited as they fail to directly assess all 3 metacognitive processes recently theorized to subserve decentering. We thus conducted 4 studies to develop and test the Metacognitive Processes of Decentering-Trait (MPoD-t) and State (MPoD-s) scales. Consistent with the metacognitive processes model, exploratory factor analysis (N = 355) and then bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (N = 275) indicated the MPoD-t was composed of three independent yet interrelated lower-order factors, metaawareness, (dis)identification with internal experience, and (non)reactivity to internal experience, which subserved an emergent, higher-order, decentering factor. We next found evidence of the MPoD-t's convergent validity; as well as known-groups criterion validity, wherein mindfulness practitioners reported higher MPoD-t scores than nonpractitioners. Item response theory analyses were then used to identify a subset of 3 MPoD-t items for the MPoD-s. Finally, we found evidence that the MPoD-s was sensitive to changes in state decentering following a brief mindfulness induction relative to an active control condition; and that MPoD-s changes mediated the effect of mindfulness on levels of pain and related outcomes among a sample of preoperative surgery patients (N = 82). These studies indicate the trait and state versions of the MPoD may prove useful for the study of decentering and its constituent metacognitive processes. As such, the MPoD may help advance our understanding of how the metacognitive processes of decentering support mental health and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Does mindfulness practice promote psychological functioning or is it the other way around? A daily diary study.

Mindfulness-based interventions are commonly used to reduce psychological symptoms and enhance positive qualities of human functioning. However, the influence of mindfulness practice dosage remains poorly understood, limiting dissemination and implementation efforts. The current study examined the association between practice dosage and several constructs related to psychological functioning (positive and negative affect, state mindfulness) over the course of a standardized mindfulness-based intervention (Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement). Twenty-five participants completed daily diary assessments for 12 weeks. Two-part gamma regression models examined the dichotomous (did practice occur?) and continuous (how much practice?) components of practice minutes. Practice time and outcomes showed same-day relationships in the expected directions. Lagged models, however, showed no evidence that current day practice time predicts subsequent day outcomes. In contrast, higher current day negative affect predicted less subsequent day practice time, and higher current day mindfulness predicted more subsequent day practice time. In a post hoc analysis, practice time moderated the link between day-to-day affect, strengthening the link for positive affect and weakening the link for negative affect. Collectively, these findings suggest that the causal direction linking practice time and outcome may flow from outcome to practice time, rather than the reverse-with potential recursive relationships between these factors. Further examination of lagged relationships between practice time and outcome as well as random assignment of participants to varying practice dosages (e.g., in within-person microrandomized trials) may help clarify the influence of this central treatment ingredient within mindfulness-based interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Behavioral assessment of mindfulness: defining features, organizing framework, and review of emerging methods.

The development and implementation of psychometrically sound behavioral measures of mindfulness are important to advancing the science of mindfulness. To help organize, conceptualize, and guide the development of behavioral measures of mindfulness, we propose defining features, and a four-domain framework, of the behavioral assessment of mindfulness. The framework domains include measurement of (I) objects of mindful awareness, (II) time-course of mindful awareness, (III) sensitivity of mindful awareness, and (IV) attitudes toward present moment experience. We describe mindfulness processes in each domain, and review extant behavioral method(s) and specific behavioral measure(s) of mindfulness processes per domain. Four of the 12 reviewed measures demonstrate acceptable reliabilities and preliminary evidence of construct validity as measures of mindfulness processes.

Metacognitive processes model of decentering: emerging methods and insights.

We previously proposed that three metacognitive processes - meta-awareness, disidentification from internal experience, and reduced reactivity to thought content - together constitute decentering. We review emerging methods to study these metacognitive processes and the novel insights they provide regarding the nature and salutary function(s) of decentering. Specifically, we review novel psychometric studies of self-report scales of decentering, as well as studies using intensive experience sampling, novel behavioral assessments, and experimental micro-interventions designed to target the metacognitive processes. Findings support the theorized inter-relations of the metacognitive processes, help to elucidate the pathways through which they may contribute to mental health, and provide preliminary evidence of their salutary roles as mechanisms of action in mindfulness-based interventions.

Trauma, attentional dysregulation, and the development of posttraumatic stress: An investigation of risk pathways.

BACKGROUND: Fundamental questions regarding the nature and function of attentional bias (AB) to threat in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain unanswered. We tested the temporal interplay between trauma exposure, dysregulated attentional processing of threatening information pre- and post-trauma, and the development of posttraumatic intrusions. METHODS: Response time to trauma-related threat, trauma-unrelated threat, as well as to trauma-related but typically emotionally-neutral stimuli was assessed using the dot probe task before and one week after watching a violent movie scene that served as a trauma analogue. AB was analyzed as a dynamic process by means of a recently developed approach indexing momentary fluctuations of AB toward and away from emotional stimuli. Posttraumatic intrusions were measured daily over the week following analogue trauma exposure. RESULTS: We found that key features of AB dynamics to trauma-related stimuli at post-, but not pre-, trauma exposure were associated with posttraumatic intrusions. Notably, these post-trauma exposure effects were specific to biased attentional processing of trauma-related but not threatening stimuli unrelated to the traumatic event. In line with a growing body of findings, pre- and post-trauma exposure traditional aggregated mean AB scores were not similarly associated with posttraumatic intrusions. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that one mechanism through which trauma exposure may contribute to the development of PTSD is through its dysregulation of attentional processing of trauma event-related cues. Future work may focus on delineating the developmental course through which attentional dysregulation post-trauma and posttraumatic intrusions unfold and interact.

Avoidance in posttraumatic stress among refugee survivors of violent conflict and atrocities: Testing trans-cultural risk processes and candidate intervention targets.

BACKGROUND: A fast-growing population of refugees and survivors of violent conflict and atrocities are at risk for trauma-related mental health problems. Experimental clinical research key to the development of interventions tailored to this population is limited. AIMS: In an experimental psychopathology laboratory paradigm, we tested the expression and function of avoidance in posttraumatic stress (PTS) among a highly traumatized community sample of forcibly displaced refugees seeking asylum. METHOD: We measured behavioral avoidance and emotional reactivity to repeated exposure to threatening stimuli (trauma-, war-, and geographically-relevant natural threat) in 110 Sudanese male asylum seekers (M(SD)age = 32.7(6.5)) recruited from the community in Israel. RESULTS: First, we found evidence of sensitization - traumatized refugees expressed increasing levels of behavioral avoidance and emotional reactivity in response to repeated exposure to threatening stimuli. Second, as predicted, refugees suffering from more severe PTS were more likely to exhibit greater behavioral avoidance and emotional reactivity reflexively or immediately upon exposure to threat stimuli. Finally, as predicted, behavioral avoidance mediated the effect of PTS severity on emotional reactivity to threat exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are consistent with theorizing that avoidance may function as a trans-cultural malleable risk process sub-serving PTS and thereby a promising intervention target among highly traumatized refugees from E. Africa.

Brief mindfulness training de-couples the anxiogenic effects of distress intolerance on reactivity to and recovery from stress among deprived smokers.

OBJECTIVE: We tested whether mindfulness de-couples the expected anxiogenic effects of distress intolerance on psychological and physiological reactivity to and recovery from an anxiogenic stressor among participants experimentally sensitized to experience distress. METHOD: N = 104 daily smokers underwent 18-hours of biochemically-verified smoking deprivation. Participants were then randomized to a 7-min analogue mindfulness intervention (present moment attention and awareness training; PMAA) or a cope-as-usual control condition; and subsequently exposed to a 2.5-min paced over breathing (hyperventilation) stressor designed to elicit acute anxious arousal. Psychological and physiological indices of anxious arousal (Skin Conductance Levels; SCL) as well as emotion (dys)regulation (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia; RSA) were measured before, during and following the stressor. RESULTS: We found that PMAA reduced psycho-physiological dysregulation in response to an anxiogenic stressor, as well as moderated the anxiogenic effect of distress intolerance on psychological but not physiological responding to the stressor among smokers pre-disposed to experience distress via deprivation. CONCLUSIONS: The present study findings have a number of theoretical and clinical implications for work on mindfulness mechanisms, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and smoking cessation interventions.

Oxytocin attenuates social and non-social avoidance: Re-thinking the social specificity of Oxytocin.

Re-examining decades of the social construal of Oxytocin, the General Approach-Avoidance Hypothesis of Oxytocin (GAAO) predicts that Oxytocin will modulate responding to emotionally-evocative and personally-relevant social and non-social stimuli due to its action on the neural substrate of approach and avoidance motivation. We report the first critical experimental test of GAAO predictions by means of a double-blind intra-nasal administration of Oxytocin vs. placebo in 90 healthy adults (N=90, 50% women). As predicted, we found that among men and women for whom negative emotion (anxious arousal) is motivationally-relevant, intra-nasal administration of Oxytocin reduced behavioral avoidance of emotionally-evocative negatively-valenced social and non-social stimuli, but not closely matched emotionally-neutral stimuli. Findings cannot be explained by extant social theories of Oxytocin. We discuss the implications of the present findings for basic and translational clinical Oxytocin research.