Adding Anxiety-Specific Practice to a Brief Audio-Based Mindfulness Intervention for Anxiety in Undergraduate Students: A Pilot Study

Mindfulness interventions have gained empirical support for treating anxiety. This study investigated the benefit of adding anxiety-specific practice to a mindfulness intervention for anxiety symptoms in young adults. A pre-post design was used with 117 undergraduate students to compare three interventions: a mindfulness intervention with anxiety-specific practice, a conventional mindfulness control, and an audiobook control intervention. Participants completed self-report scales of social anxiety, agoraphobia, interoceptive fear, worry, and trait mindfulness at baseline and post-intervention. Results indicated that compared to audiobook control, the mindfulness group with anxiety-specific practice reported less post-intervention social anxiety. Furthermore, albeit only at high baseline symptom levels, the mindfulness group with anxiety-specific practice reported less post-intervention agoraphobia and interoceptive fear compared to the audiobook group, and the conventional mindfulness group reported less post-intervention agoraphobia compared to the audiobook group. There were no group differences on worry or mindfulness. No convincing evidence was found that the mindfulness intervention with anxiety-specific practice had an advantage compared to the conventional mindfulness intervention. Possible mechanisms for observed effects include exposure and mindfulness-related processes. Considerations for future research include using samples with elevated anxiety. More research is needed to interpret these results with more confidence.