Scientific American: Focus on Yourself to Alleviate Social Pain

In the Mind & Brain section of the Scientific American website, and article on mindfulness was posted on January 3, 2013, by Tori Rodriguez. 

The title of the article was: Focus on Yourself to Alleviate Social Pain. Here is a quote:

"In one of the new studies, published in the October 2012 Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 55- to 85-year-old adults were randomized to either receive MBSR or be put on a waiting list for the program. The loneliness of the participants who received MBSR decreased after training, whereas the loneliness of the wait-listed control subjects increased slightly. MBSR also reduced inflammation—the cause of loneliness-related health risks such as heart attack or stroke—as measured by levels of stress proteins and proinflammatory gene expression.
The other study, published online in August 2012 in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, found that MBSR reduced negative emotions in people with social anxiety disorder."