Relations of mindfulness facets with psychological symptoms among individuals with a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, or borderline personality disorder

Fabrizio Didonna; Roberta Rossi; Clarissa Ferrari; Luca Iani; Laura Pedrini; Nicoletta Rossi; Erica Xodo; Mariangela Lanfredi

doi:10.1111/papt.12180

Relations of mindfulness facets with psychological symptoms among individuals with a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, or borderline personality disorder

Psychol Psychother. 2019 Mar;92(1):112-130. doi: 10.1111/papt.12180. Epub 2018 Mar 25.

Authors

Fabrizio Didonna^{1

2}, Roberta Rossi³, Clarissa Ferrari⁴, Luca Iani⁵, Laura Pedrini³, Nicoletta Rossi¹, Erica Xodo², Mariangela Lanfredi³

Affiliations

¹ Unit for OCD, Department of Psychiatry, Villa Margherita Private Hospital, Vicenza, Italy.
² Italian Institute for Mindfulness, Vicenza, Italy.
³ Unit of Psychiatry, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy.
⁴ Service of Statistics, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy.
⁵ Department of Human Sciences, European University of Rome, Italy.

PMID: 29575447
DOI: 10.1111/papt.12180

Abstract

Objectives: To explore differences in mindfulness facets among patients with a diagnosis of either obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), major depressive disorder (MDD), or borderline personality disorder (BPD), and healthy controls (HC), and their associations with clinical features.

Design and method: One hundred and fifty-three patients and 50 HC underwent a clinical assessment including measures of mindfulness (Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire - FFMQ), psychopathological symptoms (Symptom Check List-90-R), dissociation (Dissociative Experience Scale), alexithymia (Alexithymia Scale 20), and depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed to assess differences in mindfulness scores and their associations with clinical features.

Results: The three diagnostic groups scored lower on all mindfulness facets (apart from FFMQobserving) compared to the HC group. OCD group had a significant higher FFMQ total score (FFMQ-TS) and FFMQacting with awareness compared to the BPD group, and scored higher on FFMQdescribing compared to BPD and MDD groups. The scores in non-judging facet were significantly lower in all the three diagnostic groups compared to the HC group. Interestingly, higher FFMQ-TS was inversely related to all psychological measures, regardless of diagnostic group.

Conclusions: Deficits in mindfulness skills were present in all diagnostic groups. Furthermore, we found disease-specific relationships between some mindfulness facets and specific psychological variables. Clinical implications are discussed.

Practitioner points: The study showed deficits in mindfulness scores in all diagnostic groups compared to a healthy control group. Overall, mindfulness construct has a significantly negative association with indexes of global distress, dissociative symptoms, alexithymia, and depression. Mindfulness-based interventions in clinical settings should take into account different patterns of mindfulness skills and their impact on disease-specific maladaptive cognitive strategies or symptomatology.

Keywords: borderline personality disorder; major depressive disorder; mindfulness; obsessive-compulsive disorder.

MeSH terms

Adult
Analysis of Variance
Borderline Personality Disorder / psychology*
Case-Control Studies
Depressive Disorder, Major / psychology*
Female
Humans
Italy
Male
Middle Aged
Mindfulness*
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / psychology*
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychometrics
Surveys and Questionnaires
Young Adult