Meditation

Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Teasdale JD, Segal ZV, Williams JMG, et al. · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2000

This randomized trial was one of the first tests of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), a group program that teaches people who have recovered from depression to notice and step back from the thinking patterns that can pull them back into it. In this study, 145 people who had recovered from recurrent depression were randomized to their usual treatment alone or usual treatment plus MBCT, and were followed for 60 weeks. For participants with three or more past episodes of depression, about three quarters of the sample, MBCT significantly lowered the risk of relapse. For those with only two past episodes, it did not. A limitation is that benefits appeared only in a subgroup, so MBCT may suit some people better than others.

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