Diabetes: the benefits of mindfulness interventions and the role of cognitive flexibility

This thesis consists of a systematic literature review and an empirical paper. The literature review component evaluates research on the use of mindfulness interventions with people who have diabetes. Living with diabetes has both a psychological and physical impact on a person’s life. A variety of different mindfulness interventions and their benefits to both physical and psychological wellbeing are discussed. Research in this area is has only started to emerge recently. However, some of the initial findings seem promising. The empirical paper presents a cross--‐sectional study that investigates if the relationships between diabetes related stress and depression is mediated by cognitive flexibility. Research has shown that it is the experience of distress associated with diabetes that leads to depression rather than just a diagnosis of diabetes. People who are better at adapting to new situations may be less likely to experience stress due to diabetes and the opposite would be true for those who are not as good as adapting. Whilst the study did not find any significant findings the reasons for this are discussed and recommendations for future studies are made.