Mindfulness as treatment for PTSD.

Mindfulness as treatment for PTSD.

Earley et al, 2014, conducted a study supporting the use of mindfulness as a long-term treatment for PTSD.

He carried out a longitudinal study lasting for two and a half years on 19 adult participants who were child abuse survivors.

They participated in an MBSR program lasting 3 hours, which consisted of the intervention, a questionnaire, and an interview.

After the intervention, results showed significant long-term improvements in participants’ scores of PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

Mindfulness improves the PTSD symptoms as the intervention progressed as results showed a decrease after 2.5 years, compared to before the intervention.

In addition to Kyle et al, (2016) that has been previously mentioned, a weakness of mindfulness is that it may not specifically target re-experiencing.

However, in this study, the symptom of re-experiencing was significantly decreased  2 and half years after the intervention, suggesting that with time all PTSD facets can be targeted.