Merely 10 to 15 minutes of mindfulness engagement each day resulted in decreased stress and anxiety for autistic individuals who took part in a study conducted by researchers at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Participants utilized a complimentary smartphone application to assist their practice, allowing them the freedom to engage whenever and wherever they preferred.
Mindfulness represents a condition where one’s focus rests solely on the current moment. It is a mindset that can be developed through consistent practice, often via meditation or respiration techniques — and growing evidence suggests that mindfulness practice yields beneficial outcomes for mental well-being. The recent open-access research, published on April 8 in the journal Mindfulness, contributes to this evidence by demonstrating evident advantages for autistic adults.
“Everything hoped for on behalf of someone you care about occurred: diminished reports of anxiety, decreased reports of stress, lowered reports of negative feelings, and heightened reports of positive emotions,” states McGovern researcher and MIT Professor John Gabrieli, who conducted the study alongside Liron Rozenkrantz, an investigator at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a research affiliate in Gabrieli’s lab. “Every measure we employed to assess well-being moved significantly in a favorable direction,” Gabrieli adds, who also holds the title of Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and is a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT.
One of the noted advantages of engaging in mindfulness is its potential to alleviate symptoms associated with anxiety disorders. This led Gabrieli and his colleagues to ponder whether it might also assist adults with autism, who typically report above-average levels of anxiety and stress that can disrupt daily activities and diminish quality of life. Up to 65 percent of autistic adults may additionally experience an anxiety disorder.
Gabrieli mentions that allowing autistic adults to practice mindfulness through an app, as opposed to needing to attend a class or meet with a teacher, appeared especially promising. “The ability to practice at your own pace within your own home, or any preferred setting, may be beneficial for anyone,” he explains. “But perhaps particularly for individuals for whom social situations can sometimes be challenging.”
The research team, which included Cindy Li, the autism recruitment and outreach coordinator in Gabrieli’s lab, enlisted 89 autistic adults for their study. Those individuals were divided into two groups: one group would engage in the mindfulness practice for six weeks, while the other group would wait and attempt the intervention later.
Participants were instructed to practice daily via an app called Healthy Minds, which directs users through seated or active meditations, each lasting 10 to 15 minutes. Participants reported that they found the app user-friendly and experienced little difficulty allocating time for the daily sessions.
After six weeks, participants noted substantial reductions in anxiety and perceived stress levels. These improvements were not observed in the wait-list group, which acted as a control. However, following their own six weeks of practice, individuals in the wait-list group reported similar advantages. “We replicated the results almost perfectly. Every positive outcome we noted in the first group was also found in the second group,” Gabrieli states.
The researchers reconnected with study participants after another six weeks. Almost everyone had stopped their mindfulness routine — but astonishingly, their improvements in well-being had remained. Based on this observation, the team is eager to investigate the long-term effects of mindfulness practice in upcoming studies. “There’s a hypothesis that the advantages of acquiring mindfulness skills or routines endure over time — that they become integrated into your everyday life,” Gabrieli notes. “If individuals are utilizing the approach to stay present and not dwell on the past or fret about the future, that’s the ultimate goal. It’s a thought pattern that is both powerful and beneficial.”
Even as they plan future research, the investigators express their conviction that mindfulness practice can yield noticeable benefits for autistic adults. “It’s likely that mindfulness could be advantageous at many stages of life,” Gabrieli remarks. However, he highlights the significant need for this, particularly among autistic adults, who often have fewer resources and support compared to autistic children who benefit from school systems. Gabrieli is enthusiastic for more individuals with autism to experiment with the Healthy Minds app. “Providing scientifically validated resources for adults outside of school environments could be incredibly valuable,” he asserts.
This research was partially funded by The Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research at MIT and the Yang Tan Collective.