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Abstract: Objective To explore the effect of mindfulness meditative training combined with psychological guidance therapy on emotional processing and cognitive control in patients with moderate to severe depression. Methods Eighty-six patients with moderate to severe depression who were admitted to the hospital from May 2014 to July 2017 were selected as study subjects. They were randomly divided into control group and observation group with 43 cases in each group. The control group were given psychological guidance intervention and on this basis, the observation group were given mindfulness meditative intervention. The intervention in both groups lasted for 8 weeks. The relief of anxiety and depression was evaluated with the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) and Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD). The emotional word recognition task was completed. Changes in emotional processing characteristics in both groups before and after the intervention were compared. The situation of cognitive control was investigated with the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), metacognitive questionnaire (MCQ-30), automatic thinking questionnaire (ATQ) and cognitive bias questionnaire (CBQ). Results There was no significant difference in scores of HAMA, HAMD, MMSE, MCQ-30, ATQ or CBQ between the two groups before intervention (P>0.05). Scores of HAMA, HAMD, MMSE, MCQ-30 and ATQ, scores of depression-distortion, depression-non-distortion and non-depression-distortion in CBQ were decreased, while non-depression-non-distortion scores were increased in both groups after 8 weeks of intervention (P<0.05). Scores of HAMA, HAMD, MMSE, MCQ-30 and ATQ, scores of depression-distortion, depression-non-distortion and non-depression-distortion in CBQ of the observation group after 8 weeks of intervention were lower than those of the control group, while non-depression-non-distortion scores were higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the number of missed positive/negative words, number wrong judgements or response time between the two groups before the intervention (P>0.05). The number of missed positive and negative words and wrong judgments decreased, and the reaction time was shortened after 8 weeks of intervention (P<0.05). The number of missed positive and negative words and wrong judgments in the observation group was smaller than that in the control group, and the response time was shorter than that in the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion Mindfulness meditation training combined with psychological guidance can improve the negative emotions of patients with moderate to severe depression, relieve their emotional processing enhancement, correct their cognitive biases, and improve their cognitive control.
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