The Role of Mindful-Meditation in Relation to Affective Dysregulation and Suicide Ideation among Psychiatry Outpatients

Abstract

Mindful-meditation is a process to bring your awareness in the present moment and becoming self-regulated in daily life. The elements of mindfulness, namely awareness and non-judgmental acceptance of one’s moment-to-moment experience, are regarded as potentially effective antidotes against common forms of psychological distress – rumination, anxiety, worry, fear, anger, and so on – many of which involve the maladaptive tendencies to avoid, suppress, or over-engage with one’s distressing thoughts and emotions (Hayes & Feldman, 2004). The presents study intends to investigate the effect of mindful-meditation on suicide ideation and affective dysregulation among psychiatry OPD patients. The sample of the study consisted of 20 OPD patients randomly selected from the Department of Psychiatry of a reputed government hospital in Chandigarh. After a clinical interview, Affective Dysregulation Inventory (DI-A) and Beck’s Scale for Suicide Ideation were administered before proving the session of mindful-meditation and again the respective tests were administered on same patients after an interval of 40 days of practicing mindful-mediation. After this procedure, pre-therapy baseline scores were compared with post therapy scores with the help of t-test as analysis technique. The results indicate that there is a significant effect of practicing mindful-mediation in reducing affective dysregulation and suicide ideation among OPD patients and results are significant at 0.01 level. This paper also includes some strategies to strengthen emotional regulation and prevent suicidal ideation in general.