TY - JOUR
T1 - Reset your Immune System: Acceptability and Preliminary Effects of a CMT-Based Intervention in Patients with Hashimoto Thyroiditis
AU - Portokalidou, Z.
AU - Huysse-Gaytandjieva, A.
AU - Peters, M.L.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to sincerely thank Thyroid UK organization for announcing the research among their members, all patients who participated in the study, and Prof. Paul Gilbert for his useful comments on the research paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Objectives Patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) experience mental health complaints due to the immune system dysregulation. Preliminary evidence suggests that psychological interventions could improve patients' quality of life. Compassionate mind training (CMT) is part of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) and can be used to help individuals address physical and mental health difficulties. The present study sought to assess the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of Reset Your Immune System, a 6-week CMT-based online intervention, in patients with HT.Methods Nine women were randomly selected from a wider sample that undertook the online intervention. Upon completion, they were interviewed with nine standard open-ended questions. Additionally, pre- and post-intervention questionnaires were filled out.Results Qualitative analysis indicated that participants observed improvements in symptoms, sleep quality, self-awareness, stress-management, and self-regulation skills. Participants did experience some difficulties in undertaking compassion-related exercises. Quantitative analyses showed that negative affect, social/role limitations, and HT symptoms indicated a reliable change from pre- to post intervention.Conclusions Overall, Reset Your Immune System showed beneficial effects on patients with HT, suggesting that including psychological care as part of the standard treatment of HT might have added value. It is important to assess long-term effects in a larger sample through a randomized control trial.
AB - Objectives Patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) experience mental health complaints due to the immune system dysregulation. Preliminary evidence suggests that psychological interventions could improve patients' quality of life. Compassionate mind training (CMT) is part of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) and can be used to help individuals address physical and mental health difficulties. The present study sought to assess the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of Reset Your Immune System, a 6-week CMT-based online intervention, in patients with HT.Methods Nine women were randomly selected from a wider sample that undertook the online intervention. Upon completion, they were interviewed with nine standard open-ended questions. Additionally, pre- and post-intervention questionnaires were filled out.Results Qualitative analysis indicated that participants observed improvements in symptoms, sleep quality, self-awareness, stress-management, and self-regulation skills. Participants did experience some difficulties in undertaking compassion-related exercises. Quantitative analyses showed that negative affect, social/role limitations, and HT symptoms indicated a reliable change from pre- to post intervention.Conclusions Overall, Reset Your Immune System showed beneficial effects on patients with HT, suggesting that including psychological care as part of the standard treatment of HT might have added value. It is important to assess long-term effects in a larger sample through a randomized control trial.
KW - Hashimoto thyroiditis
KW - Compassion-focused therapy
KW - Compassionate-mind training
KW - Autoimmune diseases
KW - Mindfulness-based interventions
KW - QUALITY-OF-LIFE
KW - COMPASSION-FOCUSED THERAPY
KW - SELF-COMPASSION
KW - NEGATIVE AFFECT
KW - HEALTH
KW - SATISFACTION
KW - DEPRESSION
KW - ACCEPTANCE
KW - VALIDITY
KW - BEHAVIOR
U2 - 10.1007/s12671-022-01914-7
DO - 10.1007/s12671-022-01914-7
M3 - Article
SN - 1868-8527
VL - 13
SP - 1769
EP - 1781
JO - Mindfulness
JF - Mindfulness
IS - 7
ER -