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Differential Treatment Mechanisms in Mindfulness Meditation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation

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A Correction to this article was published on 11 January 2018

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Abstract

Mindfulness meditation and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) practices are both effective in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. To examine the mechanisms of change in mood in these two treatments, 95 participants were randomly assigned to present awareness mindfulness (PAM; N = 47) or PMR (N = 48). They were each given a 5-min audiotape of PAM or PMR and were asked to practice at least 5 min a day for 3 months. After attrition, 55 participants completed the post-intervention assessment. An additional 47 participants were assigned to a waitlist control group. Mindfulness, perceived stress, well-being, and mood symptoms were measured at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 1-month follow-up assessment periods. PAM and PMR both led to a significant improvement in mindfulness and reduction in stress. Results of the latent growth curve analyses revealed that mindfulness and non-reactivity mediated changes in mood for PAM more than for PMR. These results suggest that differential treatment mechanisms underlie PAM and PMR.

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Change history

  • 11 January 2018

    The authors would like to acknowledge a formatting error in Table 5 of the results section of this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Leigh Andrews for the proofreading work.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Project 31271114). Dr. Hofmann receives support from NIH/NCCIH (R01AT007257), NIH/NIMH (R01MH099021, R34MH099311, R34MH086668, R21MH102646, R21MH101567, K23MH100259), the James S. McDonnell Foundation 21st Century Science Initiative in Understanding Human Cognition–Special Initiative, and the Department of the Army for work unrelated to the studies reported in this article. He receives compensation for his work as an advisor from the Palo Alto Health Sciences and Otsuka Digital Health, Inc., and for his work as a Subject Matter Expert from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Silver Cloud Health, Inc. He also receives royalties and payments for his editorial work from various publishers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, College of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, People’s Republic of China

    Liya Gao & Xinghua Liu

  2. School of General Practice and Continuing Education, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Liya Gao

  3. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Joshua Curtiss & Stefan G. Hofmann

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  1. Liya Gao
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  2. Joshua Curtiss
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  3. Xinghua Liu
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  4. Stefan G. Hofmann
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Contributions

The first two authors contributed equally to this paper. LYG and JC contributed to the study idea, drafting of the manuscript, and data analyses. XHL and SH contributed to the study idea and drafting of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xinghua Liu.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study received ethical approval from the Academic Committee of College of Psychology, Capital Normal University. No adverse events were reported in this study. These participants were contacted by telephone to obtain verbal informed consent.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

The original version of this article was revised: The authors would like to acknowledge a formatting error in Table 5 of the results section of this paper. The header row of Table 5 was improperly formatted. This error has no implications for the results.

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Gao, L., Curtiss, J., Liu, X. et al. Differential Treatment Mechanisms in Mindfulness Meditation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Mindfulness 9, 1268–1279 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0869-9

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