Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on anxiety and depression in spouses of patients with breast cancer / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction( MBSR) on anxiety and depression in spouses of breast cancer patients and to analyze the mediating effect of caregiver burden for the training effects. Methods Randomized control trial was used in this research.100 spouses of breast cancer patients were recruited and they were randomized into experimental group or control group. 91 of them completed the study finally (45 in experimental group and 46 in control group). Participants in con-trol group received no intervention,while participants in experimental group received MBSR once a week for 8 weeks. All participants were assessed with the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview ( ZBI,measuring caregiver burden) ,Beck Depression Inventory( BDI,measuring depression level) and Hamilton Anxiety Scale( HAMA, measuring anxiety level) before and after intervention. Results After 8-week intervention,participants in experimental group got significantly lower total scores of ZBI,BDI and HAMA compared with pretest ((22.31 ±5.76) vs (25.98±6.00),(8.47±3.21) vs (11.87±3.51),(14.98±4.75) vs (17.93±4.65), P0.05).Caregiver burden played mediating effect in MBSR for improving depression,and mediating effect was 56.6% of the total effect. Conclusion MBSR can effectively improve anxiety and depression with the spou-ses of breast cancer patients,and the caregiver burden is the intermediary variable in the effect of MBSR for improving depression.