Association Between Dispositional Mindfulness, Clinical Characteristics, and Emotion Regulation in Women Entering Substance Use Disorder Treatment: an fMRI Study

Abstract

Objectives: Dispositional mindfulness (DM) is associated with emotion regulation (ER) in healthy populations and may be protective for individuals with substance use disorders (SUD). We tested hypotheses concerning the associations of DM with ER, mental health symptoms, drug use severity, and behavioral and brain metabolic responses during an emotional Go-Nogo task. Methods: Women entering an SUD treatment program (N = 245) self-reported on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ); Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21); Addiction Severity Index (ASI); and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). A subgroup of 45 women completed the emotional Go-Nogo task while undergoing fMRI. Associations between DM and self-reported ER and clinical characteristics were tested in the full sample. Associations between DM and behavioral and neural responses during the Go-Nogo emotion regulation challenge were tested in the fMRI sub-sample. Results: In the full sample, FFMQ correlated with DASS-stress (r = −.43, p