Effects of mindfulness exercises as stand-alone intervention on symptoms of anxiety and depression: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Section snippets
Eligibility criteria
The systematic review and meta-analysis were designed and conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRSIMA; Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, & Altman, 2009) statement. Inclusion criteria were specified in advance and documented in a protocol at PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=33441).
Study selection
The initial database search yielded 8181 results, 2405 new records were found after updating the search. 52 additional records were identified through reference lists of eligible studies (Fig. 1). After removal of duplicates, the initial abstract screening led to an exclusion of 8524 studies. The independent full-text screening of 578 articles found that 21 studies met inclusion criteria. Agreement between raters was high with only three studies being rated differently (κ = 0.93, z = 22.4,
Discussion
A core element of mindfulness as taught in MBIs refers to the regular performance of formal mindfulness exercises. Yet, the efficacy of these exercises as a stand-alone intervention is seldom explored, since most studies investigate fully-fletched MBIs, which are composed of several components (Dimidjian and Segal, 2015, Mander et al., 2017). Therefore, the aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to isolate one specific component and sight the existing evidence concerning the
Funding
This research was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to Dr. Johannes Mander (MA6526/2-1).
Contributors
PB and JM designed the study and wrote the protocol. Independent screening and data extraction of eligible studies was conducted by PB and SP. PB conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. TH, PK, BD, HB and JM critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Jana Nusskern, Luise Prüssner, Ivo Ritter, Kamala Grothe, Hanna Deflorin, Elena Gruber and Clara Janinhoff for their intensive support in realizing this study.
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