Mindfulness MBSR/MBCT in a UK public health neurological service: depression, anxiety, and perceived stress outcomes in a heterogeneous clinical sample of ninety-eight patients with neurological or functional neurological disorders *

In broad terms the evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness training is already established, both with randomised controlled trials in particular clinical groups and with meta-analyses of studies in diverse clinical populations. Mindfulness in this population has been understudied, and in the NHS provision of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has developed more rapidly in mental health settings than in physical health settings, so that mindfulness training is a relatively unfamiliar intervention to neurosciences physicians and professionals. Neurological patients share some similar stressful experiences with other health groups, and in the absence of more evidence with neurological populations, studies of mindfulness in patients with cancer and patients with pain are also of interest. Mindfulness training can be thought of as a particular form of attention training. The basic procedure, repeated several times during periods of practise, is to attend to aspects of immediate experience such as sensory experiences.