Lunsky Yona, Carter Madelaine, Hutton Sue, Wozniak Jan, Chen Sheng, Weiss Jonathan
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada.
University of Toronto, Canada.
Autism. 2025 Oct;29(10):2489-2500. doi: 10.1177/13623613251340101. Epub 2025 Jul 1.
There is evidence for mindfulness as a mental health intervention for autistic adults, but most of the research has focused on in-person interventions. This randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of a 6-week manualized autistic-informed group-based virtual mindfulness intervention in comparison to a waitlist control. Sixty-three autistic adults from across Canada were randomly assigned to treatment or waitlist. Both groups completed surveys prior to randomization, at 7 and 15 weeks, and the waitlist group was followed for two additional time points after receiving mindfulness. We compared outcomes at the first three time points by group using linear mixed models with a secondary analysis including outcome measures from the waitlist group after intervention. Improvements in overall distress and stress, as well as self-compassion, mindfulness, and mental wellbeing were reported in the treatment condition, maintained at follow-up. No changes were reported in the waitlist condition. Neither group reported changes in terms of autistic commnity connectedness, or interoceptive sensitivity following intervention or follow-up. This study supports the virtual delivery of autistic-informed mindfulness-based programs. Further work could explore the unique benefits of synchronous group-based virtual mindfulness in contrast to more asynchronous ways to build mindfulness skills and in-person instruction.Lay abstractSome studies have shown that learning mindfulness helps autistic people, but most of these studies were done in person. We wanted to know if learning mindfulness online in a group would help improve autistic adults' mental health. We randomly put people into two groups (a waitlist and people who got to be in the mindfulness group right away). This means people did not get to pick which group they went into. A total of 63 autistic adults were in the project. After 6 weeks of mindfulness, the people who learned mindfulness said they felt less stressed, and they were more mindful, and had better wellbeing, and more compassion or kindness for themselves, and these changes were still there 8 weeks later. The people who did not get to do mindfulness right away did not say they felt any different. Neither group said they felt more connected to other autistic people and neither group said they were more aware of the sensations they could feel inside their bodies. This tells us that we can teach groups of autistic people to do mindfulness online together, and it can help at least some autistic adults with their mental health. We need to do more research to find out how much mindfulness training people need, if it is better to learn in person or online, and if it is better to learn as part of a group or alone.
有证据表明正念可作为针对成年自闭症患者的心理健康干预措施，但大多数研究都集中在面对面干预上。这项随机对照试验评估了为期6周的基于手册、针对自闭症患者的团体虚拟正念干预与等待名单对照组相比的效果。来自加拿大各地的63名成年自闭症患者被随机分配到治疗组或等待名单组。两组在随机分组前、第7周和第15周时都完成了调查，等待名单组在接受正念干预后还进行了另外两个时间点的随访。我们使用线性混合模型按组比较了前三个时间点的结果，并进行了二次分析，包括干预后等待名单组的结果测量。治疗组报告了总体痛苦、压力以及自我同情、正念和心理健康方面的改善，随访时仍保持这些改善。等待名单组未报告有变化。两组在干预或随访后均未报告在自闭症社区联系或内感受性敏感性方面有变化。这项研究支持以虚拟方式提供针对自闭症患者的基于正念的项目。进一步的工作可以探索基于同步团体的虚拟正念与更多异步方式来培养正念技能及面对面教学相比的独特益处。
一些研究表明学习正念对自闭症患者有帮助，但这些研究大多是面对面进行的。我们想知道在团体中在线学习正念是否有助于改善成年自闭症患者的心理健康。我们将人们随机分为两组（等待名单组和立即进入正念组的人）。这意味着人们不能选择自己进入哪个组。该项目共有63名成年自闭症患者。经过6周的正念训练后，学习正念的人表示他们感觉压力减轻了，更加正念，幸福感更强，对自己更有同情心或善意，并且这些变化在8周后仍然存在。没有立即进行正念训练的人没有表示感觉有任何不同。两组都没有表示他们感觉与其他自闭症患者的联系更紧密，也没有一组表示他们对自己身体内部的感觉更敏感。这告诉我们，我们可以教自闭症患者团体一起在线进行正念训练，并且这至少可以帮助一些成年自闭症患者改善他们的心理健康。我们需要做更多的研究来了解人们需要多少正念训练，是面对面学习还是在线学习更好，以及作为团体的一部分学习还是单独学习更好。
