Ren LN, Pang JS, Jiang QN, Zhang XF, Li LL, Wang J, Li JG, Ma YY, Jia W. Self-compassion, automatic thoughts, and mental pain in depression: Mediating effects and clinical implications. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(4): 101105 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i4.101105]
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Li-Na Ren, Ji-Song Pang, Qiao-Na Jiang, Xiao-Fei Zhang, Lu-Lu Li, Jing Wang, Jian-Gong Li, Yan-Yan Ma, Department of Psychiatry, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Mental Health Center of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300222, China
Wei Jia, Department of Geriatrics, Ningxian People's Hospital, Qingyang 745200, Gansu Province, China
Co-first authors: Li-Na Ren and Ji-Song Pang.
Author contributions: Li JG, Ma YY, and Jia W contributed to the design of the study; Ren LN, Zhang XF, Li LL, and Wang J wrote the first edition of the manuscript and performed the experiments; Ren LN, Pang JS, and Jiang QN made the figures; Ren LN and Jia W revised the version of the manuscript finally; All authors have reviewed and approved this manuscript and consented to publish this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tianjin Anding Hospital (Approval No. 2024-52).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. Additional data related to this research are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request at 18993493142@163.com.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Received: September 4, 2024 Revised: November 17, 2024 Accepted: February 7, 2025 Published online: April 19, 2025 Processing time: 202 Days and 2.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Depression is a leading global health concern with high suicide rates and recurrence. Cognitive models suggest that mental pain and automatic thoughts are central to depression's impact. The hypothesis is that self-compassion will be negatively associated with mental pain, mediated by automatic thoughts.
AIM
To determine the mediating role of automatic thoughts in the relationship between self-compassion and mental pain in individuals with depression.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study included 389 inpatients with depression from Tianjin Anding Hospital. Participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale-Chinese Version (SCS-C), Automatic Thought Questionnaire (ATQ), and Orbach & Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale-Chinese Version (OMMP). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations, multiple linear regressions, and mediation analysis.
RESULTS
The SCS-C total score was 68.95 ± 14.89, ATQ was 87.02 ± 28.91, and OMMP was 129.01 ± 36.74. Correlation analysis showed mental pain was positively associated with automatic thoughts (r = 0.802, P < 0.001) and negatively with self-compassion (r = -0.636, P < 0.001). Regression analysis indicated automatic thoughts (β = 0.623, P < 0.001) and self-compassion (β = -0.301, P < 0.001) significantly predicted mental pain. Mediation analysis confirmed automatic thoughts partially mediated the relationship between self-compassion and mental pain (ab = -0.269, 95%CI: -0.363 to -0.212).
CONCLUSION
Self-compassion is inversely related to mental pain in depression, with automatic thoughts playing a mediating role. These findings suggest potential therapeutic targets for alleviating mental pain in depressed patients.
Core Tip: This observational study reveals that self-compassion is negatively correlated with mental pain in individuals with depression, while automatic thoughts mediate this relationship. The findings underscore the importance of self-compassion in reducing mental pain and suggest that addressing automatic thoughts could be a key intervention for improving mental health outcomes in depression.
