Effectiveness of mindfulness on resiliency and cognitive distortion of patients with physical symptoms

Introduction: The presence of physical and psychological complications in psychosomatic disorders leads to defective cognition and distorted beliefs about the disease, which can interfere with effective coping with the disease and its acceptance as part of life. Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness on the resilience and cognitive distortion of patients with physical symptoms. Method: in the present quasi-experimental study, among the people with somatic symptoms referred by a specialist to the psychological clinics of Isfahan in 2019, 30 patients with psychosomatic disorder who were referred to the Kelid Talaei Zehn clinic were selected by convenient sampling based on diagnosis of psychiatrist and physician and according to the inclusion criteria and were placed in control and experimental groups by random sampling. Participants were assessed three times (pretest, posttest, one-month follow-up) by the Questionnaires of Resiliency and Cognitive Distortion. Data were analyzed by ANOVA with repeated measure test. Results: The results showed that mindfulness was effective on increasing resiliency (p<0.01) and reducing cognitive distortion (p<0.01) and its components in patients with somatic symptoms. Mindfulness reduces cognitive distortions through cognitive flexibility and cognitive defusion Conclusion: Mindfulness leads to cognitive changes and reduces cognitive dissonances and increases resiliency by change coping strategies from avoiding to acceptance of emotions and thoughts, creates self-awareness and avoid automatic thinking pattern and can be used as training in rehabilitation and improving the quality of life in patients with psychosomatic disorders.