Mindfulness found to improve mental health of students

Mental health amongst
university students could be improved by introducing mindfulness training.
These are the findings from the first UK study, published in
Education Research International,
to measure the efficacy of mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on
students.

Recent evidence suggests that
university students are more likely to develop mental health problems when
compared with the general population. The University of Bristol-led study aimed
to establish whether mindfulness could be effective at improving mental health
and wellbeing in medical students who are considered more at risk of developing
a stress-related illness.

Researchers recruited 57
medical students, who had been referred to a mindfulness group either by their
GP or student advisor, to take part in an eight-week mindfulness programme.

Students were required to
attend the training for two hours each week and commit to 30-minute daily home
practice in between sessions. The training, which took place between Autumn
2011 and Spring 2015, taught participants how the mind works, how stress
impacts one’s life, an awareness of stress triggers and signs of stress
symptoms, coping techniques, meditation practice, and the importance of
self-care.

At the end of each programme
students completed a survey that included a free text response. The researchers
also conducted six qualitative interviews lasting between 60 and 90 minutes.

The students reported
mindfulness training went further than learning a set of tools for coping with
emotional difficulty. Students described improved empathy and
communication skills when with patients through their newly learnt ability to
notice their own thoughts and feelings. Students reported an improved ability
to manage their workload better as well as a new ability to notice automatic
judgmental thinking (such as not being good enough) without
identifying with these thoughts. Students described how mindfulness had helped
enhance their relationship to learning by using the mindfulness practices to refresh
and regain concentration during long days of study as well as using the
mindfulness practices to steady themselves during stressful situations in
clinic or during exams.

The researchers concluded that
more research is needed but these initial findings suggest that mindfulness
training had helped students at Bristol reduce anxiety, excessive worry,
negative thought patterns and improve resiliency to stress as well as improve
emotional wellbeing and professional development.

Dr Alice Malpass, Research Fellow in the Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences (PHS)
and co-author, said:

“At Bristol, we are continuing to increase efforts to find
solutions to improve mental health among the student population. Out aim is to
find effective new ways of supporting students who may be suffering from stress
and anxiety.

“This study has shown how
mindfulness can help students who might be struggling, in particular medical
students, find new ways of relating to the difficulties that arise in their
clinical work, studying and wellbeing.

“We have developed a
theoretical model of the medical student ‘stress signature’, mapping how
mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can break the cycle of specific
vulnerability through the development of new coping strategies.”

In Australia, New Zealand,
Canada and the USA, mindfulness training is part of the medical curriculum but
has yet to be implemented in the UK. Policy recommendations from the General
Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for improving medical education in
the UK, recommend the use of mindfulness training to increase wellbeing and
resilience to stress.

The researchers suggest a UK
wide survey should be carried out to find out how other medical schools in the
UK are implementing GMC mindfulness training guidelines and how this compares
to what medical schools are delivering in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and
the USA.

Paper

‘Medical Students’ Experience of Mindfulness Training in
the UK: Well-Being, Coping Reserve, and Professional Development
’ by
Alice Malpass, Kate Binnie, and Lauren Robson in
Education Research International