Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study examined trait mindfulness, spiritual wellbeing, and distress tolerance as moderators of the effect of a brief mindfulness intervention on anxiety reported during stereotactic breast biopsy (SBB). METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of an RCT examining guided meditation (GM; n=30), focused breathing (FB; n=30), or standard care (SC; n=16) on anxiety for women undergoing SBB. Women in GM and FB were guided through their respective interventions for 10-min before and during biopsy. Anxiety (0-10 visual analogue scale), trait mindfulness (FFMQ), spiritual wellbeing (FACIT-SP) and discomfort intolerance (DI) were assessed at baseline and anxiety was assessed every 4 min during SBB. Multilevel modeling examined moderator-by-group-by-time interactions. Significant 3-way interactions were decomposed using a median split. RESULTS: FFMQ-Observing, FFMQ-Describing, FACIT-SP-Meaning/Peace, and DI moderated the group-by-time effects on anxiety during biopsy (p's < .03). For those high in FFMQ-Describing, FACIT-SP-Meaning/Peace, or DI, GM was associated with a steeper reduction in anxiety compared to FB and SC (p's < .05). For those low in FFMQ-Describing, FFMQ-Observing, and FACIT-SP-Meaning/Peace, both GM and FB were associated with a steeper reduction in anxiety compared to SC (p's < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Individuals high in mindful-describing, high in the meaning/peace aspect of spiritual wellbeing, and high in distress intolerance may benefit most from GM. Individuals low in attentional aspects of mindfulness (i.e., describing and observing) and low in the meaning/peace aspect of spiritual wellbeing may benefit from either a GM and FB intervention.