Meditation

Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse

Kuyken W, Warren FC, Taylor RS, et al. · JAMA Psychiatry, 2016

This meta-analysis combined individual patient data from 9 randomized trials, covering 1,258 people with recurrent depression, to see whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) helps prevent relapse. MBCT was compared with usual care and with other active treatments, including antidepressants. In this analysis, people who received MBCT had a lower risk of depressive relapse over 60 weeks than those who did not, and a somewhat lower risk compared with other active treatments. Age, sex, education and relationship status did not change the effect, and there was some evidence that people with more severe symptoms before treatment benefited more. A limitation is that it relied on a fairly small number of trials, and one eligible study's data were unavailable.

Our summaries describe what each study found. They are not medical advice, and the practices at Halcyon are not a treatment for any condition.