Beneficial Effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on Resilience and Psychological Distress in Recovered from COVID-19

Background: The medium and long‐term problems experienced by survivors of COVID‐19 after discharge from hospital are currently unknown, but there is some emerging evidence. This study was conducted to the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on resilience and psychological distress in recovered from COVID-19 in Tehran (Iran) at 2021. Methods: The study was a quasi-experimental type of pretest-posttest control group design with a 2-month follow-up. The statistical population comprised all patients (25 - 55 years ( in Tehran  in 2021 who had 4 to 8 weeks of discharge. The sample consisted of 30 Recovered from COVID-19  that had symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress (based on DASS-21 scores) were selected by purposive sampling, and based on the inclusion criteria, and then matching assigned into an experimental (MBCT) and a control group (n=15 each).The experimental group  received 8 sessions of 60 minutes of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (individual and online) but the control group received no intervention. The research tools were DASS-21(Depression, Anxiety and Stress Questionnaires) and Resilience (Connor-Davidson, 2003). Data were analyzed using mixed analysis test and Ben Foroni post hoc test using SPSS software (version 23). Results: The results showed that MBCT in post-test positively affected the Resilience (F=30.31, P value =0.001) and negatively affected the Psychological Distress (F=120.70, P value=0.001) of Recovered from Covid-19. This therapeutic effect continued until the follow-up phase. According to the results, MBCT is effective in increasing resilience and reducing psychological distress and there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (p =0.01). Conclusions: Based on the findings, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is effective in increasing resilience and reducing psychological distress after illness and the use of this model can be useful in psychological rehabilitation of the recovered from covid-19.