Positive psychology interventions in patients with medical illness: What predicts improvement in psychological state?

Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) have been shown to promote wellbeing in individuals with medical illness, although it is still unknown whether certain patient characteristics make participants more likely to benefit from such interventions. The present study tested whether, using individual patient data across five published PPI studies (three single-arm proof-of-concept trials, one non-randomized controlled trial, and one randomized controlled trial) in medically-ill persons, sociodemographic or psychological factors predicted subsequent change in wellbeing. In 208 participants, lower baseline psychological wellbeing and optimism, and higher symptoms of depression and anxiety were associated with greater improvement in psychological symptoms during the PPI. Other factors were unrelated to symptom changes. In a sub-analysis of controlled studies, there were no group differences in the relationship between baseline factors and changes in wellbeing from pre- to post-intervention. Findings suggest that patients with more severe psychiatric and/or medical comorbidity are no less likely to benefit from a PPI compared to those with higher levels of health, even though these programs do not directly target psychological distress. PPIs may be widely applicable to medical patients, with lower psychological wellbeing a potential predictor of increased benefit

The Effectiveness of Gratitude Education Based on Quran and Its Schedule on Happiness, Life Satisfaction, and Hope among Students

The present research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of gratitude education based on Quran and its schedule on happiness, life satisfaction, and hope among students and it was conducted with a quasi-experimental method and pretest-posttest design with a control group and a follow-up phase. 75 second grade high school girl students were selected in the city of Shahrekord by the convenience sampling and they were randomly placed in two test groups and one control group. The research tool included the questionnaires of Schneider''s hopefulness, Diner''s life satisfaction, and Oxford happiness inventory. The intervention groups were received weekly or daily gratitude education. The analysis of combined variance shows that a) the gratitude education had a significant effect on hope and happiness in posttest and follow-up phases; b) there was not a significant difference among the groups in terms of life satisfaction; c) the daily gratitude exercise (unlike weekly exercise) considerably increased the level of happiness in group

The Comparison of the Effectiveness of Seligman, Lyubomirsky and Fordyce Happiness Training Programs in Cardiac Patients: A psychoneuroimmunological Assessment

The present study examined and compared the effectiveness of three happiness interventions on risk biomarkers and psychological variables in coronary patients. In this study 68 coronary patients were assigned randomly to 4 groups of 17 patients, in three happiness intervention groups including Seligman, Lyubomirsky and Fordyce; and a control group. The intervention groups completed 6 weeks of happiness training, and pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up measurements were carried out. Instruments were included assay kits for salivary cortisol, plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-1, IL-6, and, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Oxford Happiness Inventory, Diner Satisfaction with Living Scale, and Snyder Dispositional Hope Scale. The results have shown that there was a strong trend for Seligman authentic happiness to induce positive changes in related psychoneuroimmunological biomarkers especially for the improvement of the cortisol awakening response’s flexibility and reduction of the level of hs-CRP. In addition the results indicated that all of three interventions types have had positive and significant effects on the psychological variables. The results suggest that authentic happiness may have positive influences on regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning and reduction of inflammatory markers in coronary patients