11 minutes of mindfulness training helps drinkers cut back

Brief training in mindfulness strategies could help heavy drinkers start to cut back on alcohol consumption, finds a new UCL study. After an 11-minute training session and encouragement to continue practising mindfulness - which involves focusing on what's happening in the present moment - heavy drinkers drank less over the next week than people who were taught relaxation techniques, according to the study published in the International . "We found that a very brief, simple exercise in mindfulness can help drinkers cut back, and the benefits can be seen quite quickly," said the study's lead author, Dr Sunjeev Kamboj (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit). The researchers brought in 68 drinkers, who drink heavily but not to the point of having an alcohol use disorder. Half of them were trained to practise mindfulness, which teaches a heightened awareness of one's feelings and bodily sensations, so that they pay attention to cravings instead of suppressing them. They were told that by noticing bodily sensations, they could tolerate them as temporary events without needing to act on them. The training was delivered through audio recordings, and only took 11 minutes.