Objectives

Breast cancer is a life-threatening disease that leaves survivors vulnerable to clinical levels of psychological disorder. Expanding on recent research that indicates both mindfulness and working memory training can reduce levels of emotional vulnerability separately, we investigate how the combined effects of these interventions impact emotion regulation in female survivors of breast cancer.

Methods

Participants completed a 10-day course of either mindfulness-based meditation (Mindfulness), mindfulness-based meditation and working memory training (Mindfulness N-Back), working memory training (N-Back) or, for the control group, a 1-back task (1-back). Assessment of emotional vulnerability took place at pre- and post-intervention, as well as at 1- and 6-month follow-up time points to assess whether any observed effects would persist.

Results

Findings indicated that an independent course of either mindfulness-based meditation or working memory training, as well as a combined course of both, can result in reductions in anxious symptomatology compared to an active control group. Whilst effects were sustained for all experimental training groups (Mindfulness, N-Back, Mindfulness N-Back) at 1-month post-intervention, at 6-month follow-up effects were only apparent for the independent groups (Mindfulness, N-Back).

Conclusions

This study suggests that the engagement of attentional control processes through both independent and combined courses of mindfulness-based meditation and adaptive working memory training can result in sustained reductions in anxiety symptomatology in women diagnosed with breast cancer.

中文翻译：

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减少乳腺癌女性在正念和适应性工作记忆训练后的焦虑

目标

乳腺癌是一种危及生命的疾病，使幸存者容易受到临床心理障碍的影响。扩展最近的研究表明正念和工作记忆训练可以分别降低情绪脆弱性水平，我们调查这些干预措施的综合影响如何影响乳腺癌女性幸存者的情绪调节。

方法

参与者完成了为期 10 天的正念冥想 (Mindfulness)、正念冥想和工作记忆训练 (Mindfulness N-Back)、工作记忆训练 (N-Back) 或对照组的 1-返回任务（1-back）。在干预前和干预后以及 1 个月和 6 个月的随访时间点对情绪脆弱性进行评估，以评估观察到的任何影响是否会持续。

结果

结果表明，与主动对照组相比，基于正念的冥想或工作记忆训练的独立课程，以及两者的组合课程，可以减少焦虑症状。虽然在干预后 1 个月，所有实验训练组（正念、N-Back、正念 N-Back）的效果持续，但在 6 个月的随访效果仅对独立组（正念、N-Back）明显）。

结论

这项研究表明，通过基于正念的冥想和适应性工作记忆训练的独立和组合课程参与注意力控制过程，可以持续减少被诊断患有乳腺癌的女性的焦虑症状。