Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created unprecedented stress on physicians. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that focuses on being fully present, aware of senses, and emotions in the present moment without analyzing or judging them, and it may help reduce psycholog...

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Autores principales: Al Ozairi, Abdullah, Alsaeed, Dalal, Al-Ozairi, Ebaa, Irshad, Mohammad, Crane, Rebecca S., Almoula, Aroub
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9868838/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36699484
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1089147
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author Al Ozairi, Abdullah
Alsaeed, Dalal
Al-Ozairi, Ebaa
Irshad, Mohammad
Crane, Rebecca S.
Almoula, Aroub
author_facet Al Ozairi, Abdullah
Alsaeed, Dalal
Al-Ozairi, Ebaa
Irshad, Mohammad
Crane, Rebecca S.
Almoula, Aroub
author_sort Al Ozairi, Abdullah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created unprecedented stress on physicians. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that focuses on being fully present, aware of senses, and emotions in the present moment without analyzing or judging them, and it may help reduce psychological distress in physicians. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on physicians’ perceived anxiety and depression and different facets of mindfulness. METHODS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online survey was administered to physicians to assess depression, anxiety, and awareness using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), 7-item General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and Five-Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), respectively. Physicians that received the virtual MBI sessions also completed post-questionnaires at a 3-week follow-up time point. RESULTS: A total of 125 physicians responded to the online survey, with 56 completing the MBI. The prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety and depression was 45.0 and 46.7%, respectively. Mindfulness scores were negatively associated with depression (r = −0.38, P < 0.001) and anxiety (r = −0.36, p < 0.001). Mindfulness scores for the 56 physicians who received virtual MBI sessions were significantly improved (mean difference ± SD, 17.7 ± 16.1, p = 0.001). Significant reductions were also evidenced in anxiety (4.4 ± 4.2) and depression (4.5 ± 5.1) scores (p’s < 0.001). There was also an improvement in mindfulness facets of observing (5.1 ± 4.7), describing (2.3 ± 4.3), acting with awareness (2.7 ± 5.3), non-judging of inner experience (3.6 ± 6.1), and non-reactivity to inner experience (3.9 ± 4.0) (p’s < 0.001). A facet of mindfulness, acting with awareness was most efficiently associated with improved anxiety (B = −0.3, p = 0.02) and depression (B = −0.4, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that virtual MBI improved physicians’ psychological wellbeing and mindfulness during the crisis. Regular mindfulness practice may help physicians to tolerate and handle unpleasant circumstances, such as future epidemics or pandemics.
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spelling pubmed-98688382023-01-24 Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study Al Ozairi, Abdullah Alsaeed, Dalal Al-Ozairi, Ebaa Irshad, Mohammad Crane, Rebecca S. Almoula, Aroub Front Psychiatry Psychiatry BACKGROUND: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created unprecedented stress on physicians. Mindfulness is a type of meditation that focuses on being fully present, aware of senses, and emotions in the present moment without analyzing or judging them, and it may help reduce psychological distress in physicians. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on physicians’ perceived anxiety and depression and different facets of mindfulness. METHODS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, an online survey was administered to physicians to assess depression, anxiety, and awareness using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), 7-item General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and Five-Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), respectively. Physicians that received the virtual MBI sessions also completed post-questionnaires at a 3-week follow-up time point. RESULTS: A total of 125 physicians responded to the online survey, with 56 completing the MBI. The prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety and depression was 45.0 and 46.7%, respectively. Mindfulness scores were negatively associated with depression (r = −0.38, P < 0.001) and anxiety (r = −0.36, p < 0.001). Mindfulness scores for the 56 physicians who received virtual MBI sessions were significantly improved (mean difference ± SD, 17.7 ± 16.1, p = 0.001). Significant reductions were also evidenced in anxiety (4.4 ± 4.2) and depression (4.5 ± 5.1) scores (p’s < 0.001). There was also an improvement in mindfulness facets of observing (5.1 ± 4.7), describing (2.3 ± 4.3), acting with awareness (2.7 ± 5.3), non-judging of inner experience (3.6 ± 6.1), and non-reactivity to inner experience (3.9 ± 4.0) (p’s < 0.001). A facet of mindfulness, acting with awareness was most efficiently associated with improved anxiety (B = −0.3, p = 0.02) and depression (B = −0.4, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that virtual MBI improved physicians’ psychological wellbeing and mindfulness during the crisis. Regular mindfulness practice may help physicians to tolerate and handle unpleasant circumstances, such as future epidemics or pandemics. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9868838/ /pubmed/36699484 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1089147 Text en Copyright © 2023 Al Ozairi, Alsaeed, Al-Ozairi, Irshad, Crane and Almoula. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Al Ozairi, Abdullah
Alsaeed, Dalal
Al-Ozairi, Ebaa
Irshad, Mohammad
Crane, Rebecca S.
Almoula, Aroub
Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study
title Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study
title_full Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study
title_fullStr Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study
title_short Effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pre-post experimental study
title_sort effectiveness of virtual mindfulness-based interventions on perceived anxiety and depression of physicians during the covid-19 pandemic: a pre-post experimental study
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9868838/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36699484
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1089147
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