Mindfulness-Based Interventions Reduce Stress in Medical Students
Stress and burnout are common among medical students, and effective methods of ameliorating these are urgently needed. In order to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in addressing stress and burnout among medical students, these authors reviewed six high-quality studies from five different countries including two from the US. A total of 689 medical students were randomly assigned to participate in either a mindfulness course or their usual educational program. The primary outcomes evaluated were stress measurement scores. These were significantly better immediately following the intervention in each of the mindfulness groups compared to those in the control groups. After six-months, the mindfulness groups continued to have significantly better stress scores than the control groups. The authors concluded that that mindfulness-based interventions are effective in reducing subjective stress in medical students for up to six months.
Hathaisaard C, Wannarit K, Pattanaseri K. Asian Journal of Psychiatry. 69:102997, 2022 March.
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