Mindfulness and the busy physician

Spiritual traditions from the East are becoming more and more mainstream in the 21st century. Mindfulness or moment-by-moment awareness can lead to mindful meditation and mindfulness-based stress reduction, both of which have many potential applications in psychiatry and medicine. 

Your patients are likely aware of this topic through media coverage, such as Oprah’s en­dorsement of Eckhardt Tolle’s books (The Power of Now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment, A New Earth and Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose).

In keeping with the College Li­brary’s vision of providing reliable clinical information we have collected four books to date on mindfulness: Mindfulness and Psycho­therapy, Mind­fulness-Based Treatment Approaches: Clinician’s guide to evidence base and applications, Mindful Therapy: A guide for therapists and helping professionals, and The Mindful Brain: Reflection and attunement in the cultivation of well-being. 

For anyone interested in the topics of awareness, meditation, attention, the psychology of Buddhism, mind-body relations, mind-body and relaxation techniques, religion and psychology, or even behavior therapy or more general psychotherapy methods, one or more of these books would provide an interesting read. All four were featured in different issues of our newsletter, Cites & Bytes, and have enjoyed significant circulation.

Recommendations for other titles on this subject are welcomed and should be sent to the College Library (604 733-6671, fax 604 737-8582 or e-mail medlib@mls.cpsbc.ca).

—Linda Clendenning, Karen MacDonell, Judy Neill
Librarians/Co-Managers, College Library

Linda Clendenning, Karen MacDonell, PhD, MLIS, Judy Neill. Mindfulness and the busy physician. BCMJ, Vol. 50, No. 5, June, 2008, Page(s) 240 - College Library.



Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

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