The Effectiveness of Adjunctive Mindfulness Therapy with a Unified Protocol on the Emotional Disorders and Sleep Problems of Adolescents

Background and Objective: The results of different studies have indicated the comorbidity between emotional disorders and sleep problems. However, no study has compared the outcome of mindfulness and unified protocol on the emotional problems and the sleep quality of the adolescents with emotional disorders. Materials and Methods: The current investigation was a quasi-experimental study with a control group, which was conducted in 2019. The participants included adolescents with emotional disorders in control (n = 15) and experimental (n = 16) groups. Both groups received 14 sessions of therapy. The assessments were performed in three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The measurements included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED). Results: The mean age of the participants in the experimental and control groups was 13.06 and 13.05 years, respectively. Given the results, both treatments alleviated the sleep and emotional problems of the adolescents diagnosed with emotional disorders. However, the combined treatment of mindfulness and the unified protocol led to more improvements. The calculated effect size of this treatment was 0.21 for sleep quality and 0.24 for the SCARED questionnaire. Conclusion: Based on the findings, utilizing mindfulness as a supplementary therapeutic method can enhance the chances of reductions in the emotional problems and the improvements of sleep quality in the adolescents with emotional disorders.