Main description:

This volume brings together basic research on the nature of stress reactivity with up-to-date research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of mindfulness interventions. The chapters review the major research areas that elucidate the impact of stress reactivity on health, and explore the mechanisms and effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches for stress reduction and improved physical and emotional health. The first section examines biopsychosocial mechanisms of stress reactivity such as allostasis and allostatic load, neurobiology of stress, biology of the "fight-or-flight" and "tend-and-befriend" responses, and psychoneuroimmunology. This section concludes by addressing the roles of perception and appraisal, including the role of perceived threat in stress reactivity as well as the role that negative perceptions of the stress response itself play in compromising health. The second section opens with review of leading psychological models of mindfulness, including self-regulation, reperceiving, and the Intention, Attention, Attitude (IAA) triaxiomatic model. Subsequent chapters discuss mindfulness-based interventions and mechanisms of change for stress and related clinical conditions including chronic pain, traumatic stress, anxiety and related disorders, and clinical depression. The final chapter reviews possible neural networks and brain mechanisms associated with mindfulness meditation practice. As the research on stress reactivity and mindfulness-based stress reduction continues to proliferate, this book offers readers a single volume covering the most relevant information across this vast terrain. Other available volumes offer in-depth coverage of stress research with little mention of mindfulness and stress reduction. Conversely, many texts on the topic of mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions do not adequately cover the biopsychosocial processes of stress reactivity.

Contents:

Part I Stress Reactivity and Health

Chapter 1 Stress: Historical Approaches to Allostasis

Tori Humiston and Amy Hughes Lansing

Chapter 2 The Neurobiology of Stress

Olena Kleshchova and Mariann R. Weierich

Chapter 3 The Tend and Befriend Theory of Stress: Understanding the Biological, Evolutionary and Psychosocial Aspects of the Female Stress Response

Laura Cohen and Amy Hughes Lansing

Chapter 4 Psychoneuroimmunology: How Chronic Stress Makes Us Sick

Andrew W. Manigault and Peggy M. Zoccola

Chapter 5 The Roles of Appraisal and Perception in Stress Responses, and Leveraging Appraisals and Mindsets to Improve Stress Responses

Jeremy P. Jamieson and Emily J. Hangen

Part II Mindfulness, Stress Reduction, and Mechanisms of Change

Chapter 6 Historical Origins and Psychological Models of Mindfulness

Michael Gordon, Selma A. Quist-Moller, and Shauna Shapiro

Chapter 7 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Medical Conditions

Linda E. Carlson, Kirsti Toivonen, Michelle Flynn, Julie Deleemans, Katherine-Anne Piedalue, Utkarsh Subnis, Devesh Oberoi, Michaela Patton, Hassan Pirbhai, and Mohamad Baydoun

Chapter 8 Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Traumatic Stress

Daniel Szoke, Asha Putnam, and Holly Hazlett-Stevens

Chapter 9 Mindfulness-based Interventions for Clinical Anxiety and Depression

Holly Hazlett-Stevens

Chapter 10 Neurobiology of Mindfulness-Based Interventions

Philip A. Desormeau and Norman A. S. Farb