Self-regulation mediates effects of adapted mindfulness-based stress reduction on anxiety among college students.

Objective: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduces anxiety among undergraduate students; however, there is limited evidence demonstrating mechanistic underpinnings. Theoretical models implicate cognitive self-regulation as a mechanism. This study explored whether an adapted MBSR embedded in a college course reduced anxiety and if self-regulation mediated any intervention effects. Participants: 144 undergraduate students participated in the study; 34 completed a MBSR course and 110 served as a matched control group. Methods: Mindfulness, self-regulation, and anxiety were measured at pre-MBSR, post-MBSR, and 1-month follow-up. Results: Repeated-measure ANOVAs indicated significant effects of MBSR for self-regulation and anxiety. Longitudinal mediation models indicated significant mediation effects of self-regulation on anxiety at post-intervention and 1-month follow-up. Conclusions: MBSR can be implemented within a college course to indirectly affect anxiety mechanistically via self-regulation. Given increasing rates of anxiety in college students and reduced capacity for counseling centers to meet need, MBSR holds promise for future clinical study.

Role of clozapine in the occurrence of chromosomal abnormalities in human bone-marrow cells in vivo and in cultured lymphocytes in vitro.

Bone-marrow chromosomes were examined from 38 mentally and physically retarded and two psychiatric patients who were being treated with a variety of neuropharmacologic drugs. Twenty of these patients used clozapine (Leponex). The clastogenic effects of clozapine in vitro were studied in the lymphocyte cultures of three patients--one free of hematologic disease and two who 6 months earlier had had agranulocytosis attributed to the use of clozapine. The mean frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in the bone-marrow cells of patients who used clozapine was significantly increased (P less than 0.05). The two patients who had had agranulocytosis had a greater frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in their cultured lymphocytes in vivo and in vitro than the patient free of hematologic disease. A clone with a 13/14 chromosome translocation was detected in one of the patients. As all patients received a number of drugs during the in vivo and in vitro studies no definite conclusions could be drawn regarding the role played by clozapine in the occurrence of chromosomal abnormalities.