New research suggests mindfulness training may help multiple sclerosis patients in two very different ways: regulating negative emotions and improving processing speed. People with MS who underwent the four-week mindfulness training not only improved more compared to those who did nothing – they also improved compared to those who tried another treatment, called adaptive cognitive training.

The study involved 61 people with MS who were placed in one of three groups: four-week mindfulness training, four-week adaptive cognitive training, or a waitlist control group that did nothing during the study period, but received treatment afterward.

Mindfulness-based training involves practicing paying attention to the present moment in a nonjudgmental and accepting manner. Among the practices in the sessions, participants learned how to focus on the breath and to do mental "body scans" to experience how their body was feeling.

In the primary analysis of the study, Ohio State University researchers wanted to find out if mindfulness training helped MS patients deal with a common component of the disease: problems regulating their emotions. Study participants completed a measure of emotional regulation at the beginning and end of the study. They were asked how much they agreed with questions like "When I'm upset, I lose control over my behavior" and "I experience my emotions as overwhelming and out of control."

Results showed that people in the mindfulness training group reported they were more able to manage their emotions at the end of the study when compared to those in the other two groups.

This included the group that received adaptive cognitive training, which has shown promise for MS patients in other studies. This ACT program used computerized games to help MS patients overcome some of their cognitive deficits that make everyday functioning more difficult, such as problems with paying attention, switching focus, and planning and organizing.

In a secondary analysis of the same study, participants were assessed on their processing speed and working memory, two cognitive functions that often decline in MS patients. They also completed additional measures of cognitive functioning. Processing speed is the time it takes a person to complete mental tasks and is related to how well they can understand and react to the information they receive.

Findings showed that after four weeks of mindfulness training, MS patients showed significantly improved processing speed based on the tests used in the study – more so than those in the other two groups.

Gains in working memory were similar in all three groups and there were no mindfulness-specific changes in other measures of cognitive functioning.

One of the reasons that mindfulness training is so promising is because it is an easily accessible treatment for all patients. The study’s authors are working on replicating this pilot study with a larger sample.

The findings were published in two journal articles: primary results in Rehabilitation Psychology, and secondary analysis in Neuropsychology.