MINDFULNESS BASED INTERVENTIONS (MBIS) IN PSYCHIATRY – A BIRD'S EYE VIEW FROM THE FIRST DECADES OF THE 21ST CENTURY.

Abstract

Psychiatry of the 21st century is also characterized by ramication into various specialized branches. Revolutions in the areas of psychopharmacology, psychotherapies and social therapies have become a routine in the eld of psychiatry. Mindfulness is one concept spanning across the bio-psycho-social realms which continues to be a topic of current interest both for the professionals as well as the lay public since more than 5 decades. Two of the most common among them are Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, a stress management model by Jon Kabat Zinn and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy , a mindfulness based model devised to prevent the relapse of depression6, by John Teasdale, Mark Williams and Zindel Segal. Several countries in the world have their own MBIs like Mindfulness Integrated Cognitive Behaviour therapy by Bruno Cayoun8. India also has its own share of MBIs in the form of Mindful Life Management 9 and Mindfulness Unied Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 10 developed by the author, though research evidences are only getting accumulated. MBIs aim to enhance greater attention to and awareness of present moment experience12. MBIs have been found to be of use in realms of health, cognitive, affective and interpersonal relationships. Various other factors related to MBIs like psychological and neurobiological mechanisms and potential risks also have been studied by several authors. Neurobiological effects of MBIs have been reported as functional and structural alterations in grey and white matter, especially in areas related to attention and memory, interoception and sensory processing, or self- and auto-regulation of stress and emotions. Amidst all these researches happening in different parts of the world, India didn't have any structured MBIs of its own till the end of the rst decade of 21st century, until the development of Mindful Life Management and Mindfulness Unied Cognitive Behavior Therapy by the author. This article covers the work being done by mindfulness researchers during the rst two decades of the 21st century