Effects of Brief Group Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Stress Reduction among Medical Students in a Malaysian University

Abstract

It has been widely reported that medical students face considerable stress in medical school. In Malaysia, a brief (four-session, 2 h per week) group Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (b-GMBCT/Mindful-Gym) was developed to help medical students cope with stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the program in reducing stress among medical students in a Malaysian university. This was a single-group, prospective study. A total of 135 year-four medical students in psychiatric postings participated in the program (conducted in seven batches over 2 years). The following outcome variables were measured pre-and post-intervention: mindfulness, perceived stress, and general psychological distress. Intention-to-treat analyses showed significant reductions in perceived stress (M = −3.85, SD = 5.70, 95 % CI,-2.88 to −4.82, p < 0.001) and increase in mindfulness (M = 0.46, SD = 0.80, 95 % CI, 0.32 to 0.59, p < 0.001) with medium effect sizes from pre-to post-intervention. The percentage of participants who reported having significant general psychological distress (GHQ ≥ 4) reduced (p < 0.001) from 36 % (n = 48) at preintervention to 10 % (n = 14) after the program. Although there were significant reductions in perceived stress among Malay and non-Malay medical students, Malay students had significantly lower level of perceived stress (p = 0.03) after the program. This study found that the b-GMBCT is potentially an effective stress reduction program for medical students in Malaysia.

Mindfulness‐based stress reduction for psychological distress among nurses: A systematic review

“…This programme was adapted from the 8‐week MBSR (Kabat‐Zinn, ) and MBCT programmes (Segal & Teasdale, ). The programme was of 5 weeks duration with two hourly sessions per week; it was initially adapted for use among medical students (Keng, Phang, & Oei, ; Phang, Chiang, Ng, Keng, & Oei, ; Phang, Keng, & Chiang, ; Phang, Mukhtar, Ibrahim, Keng, & Mohd. Sidik S, ).…”

“…One of the adapted programmes was a brief Mindfulness‐based Stress Reduction (b‐MBSR) which was a 4‐week version of the MBSR and MBCT (Mackenzie et al, ). Another programme consisted of MBSR and MBCT; the Mindful‐Gym, a 5‐week programme, which was adapted to serve the multi‐ethnic community in Malaysia (Keng et al, ; Phang et al, , , ). These shorter programmes give nurses the opportunity to learn mindfulness despite their heavy work schedule, which often prevents them from attending the full 8‐week MBSR.…”

Mindful-S.T.O.P.: Mindfulness Made Easy for Stress Reduction in Medical Students

“…Mindfulness-based interventions have been specifically shown to be effective in helping medical students reduce stress and increase wellbeing (20)(21)(22)(23). The Mindful-Gym programme has been offered to the medical students in UPM since 2010, and also found to be effective for reducing stress and increasing well-being (24,25). Table 1 shows an outline of the Mindful-Gym programme.…”

Determining the feasibility and effectiveness of brief online mindfulness training for rural medical students: a pilot study

“…Mindfulness training may be an important strategy for reducing stress and its negative consequences in medical students, and such programs are already delivered in some medical schools (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26).…”