A new study of older adults, who can gain particular quality of life benefits from the use of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques, showed that specific personality traits were associated with individual differences in the use of MBSR during and post-training. These findings can help better tailor MBSR programs to targeted populations, as described in an article in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website until June 2, 2016.

Tessa Barkan and Michael Hoerger, PhD, Tulane University (New Orleans, LA), Autumn Gallegos, PhD, Paul Duberstein, PhD and Jan Moynihan, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center (NY), and Nicholas Turiano, PhD, West Virginia University (Morgantown), evaluated the relationship between five aspects of personality-neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness-among a group of older adults and how often they used the MBSR techniques they were taught during an 8-week training program and at follow-up 6 months later.

The article, "Personality Predicts Utilization of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction During and Post-Intervention in a Community Sample of Older Adults," describes how MBSR, which combines yoga, meditation, and body scanning, may be especially helpful as a non-pharmacological approach to coping with emotional distress, loneliness, and insomnia and to improving balance and coordination.

Personality Predicts Utilization of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction During and Post-Intervention in a Community Sample of Older Adults. Barkan Tessa, Hoerger Michael, Gallegos Autumn M., Turiano Nicholas A., Duberstein Paul R., and Moynihan Jan A. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. DOI:10.1089/acm.2015.0177. Published online March 31, 2016.