***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: OBJECTIVES The aim of these two studies was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mindful Self-Compassion ( MSC ) program , an 8-week workshop design ed to train people to be more self-compassionate . METHODS Study 1 was a pilot study that examined change scores in self-compassion , mindfulness , and various wellbeing outcomes among community adults ( N = 21 ; mean [ M ] age = 51.26 , 95 % female ) . Study 2 was a r and omized controlled trial that compared a  treatment group ( N = 25 ; M age = 51.21 ; 78 % female ) with a waitlist control group ( N = 27 ; M age = 49.11 ; 82 % female ) . RESULTS Study 1 found significant pre/post gains in self-compassion , mindfulness , and various wellbeing outcomes . Study 2 found that compared with the control group , intervention participants reported significantly larger increases in self-compassion , mindfulness , and wellbeing . Gains were maintained at 6-month and 1-year follow-ups . CONCLUSIONS The MSC program appears to be effective at enhancing self-compassion , mindfulness , and wellbeing Although meditation is increasingly accepted as having personal benefits , less is known about the broader impact of meditation on social and intergroup relations . We tested the effect of lovingkindness meditation training on improving implicit attitudes toward members of 2 stigmatized social outgroups : Blacks and homeless people . Healthy non-Black , nonhomeless adults ( N = 101 ) were r and omly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions : 6-week lovingkindness practice , 6-week lovingkindness discussion ( a closely matched active control ) , or waitlist control . Decreases in implicit bias against stigmatized outgroups ( as measured by Implicit Association Test ) were observed only in the lovingkindness practice condition . Reduced psychological stress mediated the effect of lovingkindness practice on implicit bias against homeless people , but it did not mediate the reduced bias against Black people . These results suggest that lovingkindness meditation can improve automatically activated , implicit attitudes toward stigmatized social groups and that this effect occurs through distinctive mechanisms for different stigmatized social groups Flaws in the design , conduct , analysis , and reporting of r and omised trials can cause the effect of an intervention to be underestimated or overestimated . The Cochrane Collaboration ’s tool for assessing risk of bias aims to make the process clearer and more Meditation practice s purportedly help people develop focused and sustained attention , cultivate feelings of compassionate concern for self and others , and strengthen motivation to help others who are in need . We examined the impact of 3 months of intensive meditative training on emotional responses to scenes of human suffering . Sixty participants were assigned r and omly to either a 3-month intensive meditation retreat or a wait-list control group . Training consisted of daily practice in techniques design ed to improve attention and enhance compassionate regard for others . Participants viewed film scenes depicting human suffering at pre- and posttraining laboratory assessment s , during which both facial and subjective measures of emotion were collected . At post- assessment , training group participants were more likely than controls to show facial displays of sadness . Trainees also showed fewer facial displays of rejection emotions ( anger , contempt , disgust ) . The groups did not differ on the likelihood or frequency of showing these emotions prior to training . Self-reported sympathy -- but not sadness or distress -- predicted sad behavior and inversely predicted displays of rejection emotions in trainees only . These results suggest that intensive meditation training encourages emotional responses to suffering characterized by enhanced sympathetic concern for , and reduced aversion to , the suffering of others OBJECTIVE To test whether a brief mindfulness meditation training intervention buffers self-reported psychological and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test ( TSST ) in young adult volunteers . A second objective evaluates whether pre-existing levels of dispositional mindfulness moderate the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on stress reactivity . METHODS Sixty-six ( N=66 ) participants were r and omly assigned to either a brief 3-day ( 25-min per day ) mindfulness meditation training or an analytic cognitive training control program . All participants completed a st and ardized laboratory social-evaluative stress challenge task ( the TSST ) following the third mindfulness meditation or cognitive training session . Measures of psychological ( stress perceptions ) and biological ( salivary cortisol , blood pressure ) stress reactivity were collected during the social evaluative stress-challenge session . RESULTS Brief mindfulness meditation training reduced self-reported psychological stress reactivity but increased salivary cortisol reactivity to the TSST , relative to the cognitive training comparison program . Participants who were low in pre-existing levels of dispositional mindfulness and then received mindfulness meditation training had the greatest cortisol reactivity to the TSST . No significant main or interactive effects were observed for systolic or diastolic blood pressure reactivity to the TSST . CONCLUSIONS The present study provides an initial indication that brief mindfulness meditation training buffers self-reported psychological stress reactivity , but also increases cortisol reactivity to social evaluative stress . This pattern may indicate that initially brief mindfulness meditation training fosters greater active coping efforts , result ing in reduced psychological stress appraisal s and greater cortisol reactivity during social evaluative stressors Contemplative practice s are believed to alleviate psychological problems , cultivate prosocial behavior and promote self-awareness . In addition , psychological science has developed tools and models for underst and ing the mind and promoting well-being . Additional effort is needed to combine frameworks and techniques from these traditions to improve emotional experience and socioemotional behavior . An 8-week intensive ( 42 hr ) meditation/emotion regulation training intervention was design ed by experts in contemplative traditions and emotion science to reduce " destructive enactment of emotions " and enhance prosocial responses . Participants were 82 healthy female schoolteachers who were r and omly assigned to a training group or a wait-list control group  , and assessed pre assessment , post assessment , and 5 months after training completion . Assessment s included self-reports and experimental tasks to capture changes in emotional behavior . The training group reported reduced trait negative affect , rumination , depression , and anxiety , and increased trait positive affect and mindfulness compared to the control group . On a series of behavioral tasks , the training increased recognition of emotions in others ( Micro-Expression Training Tool ) , protected trainees from some of the psychophysiological effects of an experimental threat to self ( Trier Social Stress Test ; TSST ) , appeared to activate cognitive networks associated with compassion ( lexical decision procedure ) , and affected hostile behavior in the Marital Interaction Task . Most effects at post assessment that were examined at follow-up were maintained ( excluding positive affect , TSST rumination , and respiratory sinus arrhythmia recovery ) . Findings suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can influence emotional behavior , and they support the benefit of integrating contemplative theories/ practice s with psychological models and methods of emotion regulation We investigated the impact of mindfulness training ( MT ) on working memory capacity ( WMC ) and affective experience . WMC is used in managing cognitive dem and s and regulating emotions . Yet , persistent and intensive dem and s , such as those experienced during high-stress intervals , may deplete WMC and lead to cognitive failures and emotional disturbances . We hypothesized that MT may mitigate these deleterious effects by bolstering WMC . We recruited 2 military cohorts during the high-stress predeployment interval and provided MT to 1 ( MT , n = 31 ) but not the other group ( military control group , MC , n = 17 ) . The MT group attended an 8-week MT course and logged the amount of out-of-class time spent practicing formal MT exercises . The operation span task was used to index WMC at 2 testing sessions before and after the MT course . Although WMC remained stable over time in civilians ( n = 12 ) , it de grade d in the MC group . In the MT group , WMC decreased over time in those with low MT practice time , but increased in those with high practice time . Higher  MT practice time also corresponded to lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of positive affect ( indexed by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule ) . The relationship between practice time and negative , but not positive , affect was mediated by WMC , indicating that MT-related improvements in WMC may support some but not all of MT 's salutary effects . Nonetheless , these findings suggest that sufficient MT practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress context OBJECTIVES Mindfulness-based stress reduction ( MBSR ) has been found to reduce psychological distress and improve  psychological adjustment in medical , psychiatric , and non clinical sample s. We examined its effects on several processes , attitudes , and behavior patterns related to emotion regulation . DESIGN Fifty-six adults were r and omly assigned to MBSR or to a waiting list ( WL ) . RESULTS Compared with WL completers ( n = 21 ) , MBSR completers ( n = 20 ) reported significantly greater increases in trait mindfulness and decreases in absent-mindedness , greater increases in self-compassion , and decreases in fear of emotions , suppression of anger , aggressive anger expression , worry , and difficulties regulating emotions . The WL group subsequently received MBSR , and the two groups combined showed significant changes on all of these variables from pre-MBSR to post-MBSR , and on all except the 2 anger variables from pre-test to 2-month follow-up , as well as significant reductions in rumination . CONCLUSION An 8-week mindfulness training program might increase mindful awareness in daily life and have beneficial impact on clinical ly relevant emotion regulation processes This study evaluated mindfulness-based cognitive therapy ( MBCT ) , a group intervention design ed to train recovered recurrently depressed patients to disengage from dysphoria-activated depressogenic thinking that may mediate relapse/recurrence . Recovered recurrently depressed patients ( n = 145 ) were r and omized to continue with treatment as usual or , in addition , to receive MBCT .  Relapse/recurrence to major depression was assessed over a 60-week study period . For patients with 3 or more previous episodes of depression ( 77 % of the sample ) , MBCT significantly reduced risk of relapse/recurrence . For patients with only 2 previous episodes , MBCT did not reduce relapse/recurrence .  MBCT offers a promising cost-efficient psychological approach to preventing relapse/recurrence in recovered recurrently depressed patients OBJECTIVE The present study investigated the effectiveness of a newly developed 3-week self-compassion group intervention for enhancing resilience and well-being  among female college students . METHOD Fifty-two students were r and omly assigned to either an intervention design ed to teach skills of self-compassion ( n = 27 ) or an active control group intervention in which general time management skills were taught ( n = 25 ) . Both interventions comprised 3 group meetings held over 3 weeks . To measure resilience and well-being gains , participants filled out a number of question naires before and after the intervention . RESULTS Results showed that the self-compassion intervention led to significantly greater increases in self-compassion , mindfulness , optimism , and self-efficacy , as well as significantly greater decreases in rumination in comparison to the active control intervention . Whereas both interventions increased life satisfaction and connectedness , no differences were found for worry and mood . CONCLUSION These findings suggest that a brief self-compassion intervention has potential for improving student resilience and well-being Objective and Participants : The authors evaluated the effects on stress , rumination , forgiveness , and hope of two 8-week , 90-min/wk training programs for college undergraduates in meditation-based stress-management tools .  Methods : After a pretest , the authors r and omly allocated college undergraduates to training in mindfulness-based stress reduction ( MBSR ; n = 15 ) , Easwaran 's Eight-Point Program ( EPP ; n = 14 ) , or wait-list control ( n = 15 ) . The authors gathered pretest , posttest , and 8-week follow-up data on self-report outcome measures . Results : The authors observed no post-treatment differences between  MBSR  and EPP or between posttest and 8-week follow-up ( p > .10 ) . Compared with controls , treated participants ( n = 29 ) demonstrated significant benefits for stress ( p < .05 , Cohen 's d = -.45 ) and forgiveness ( p < .05 , d = .34 ) and marginal benefits for rumination ( p < .10 , d = -.34 ) . Conclusions : Evidence suggests that meditation-based stress-management practice s reduce stress and enhance forgiveness among college undergraduates . Such programs merit further study as potential health-promotion tools for college population 
    Output:
    
Meditation interventions had an effect on compassion and empathy , but not on aggression , connectedness or prejudice .
Contrary to popular beliefs that meditation will lead to prosocial changes , the results of this meta- analysis showed that the effects of meditation on prosociality were qualified by the type of prosociality and method ological quality of the study .