Mindfulness Improves Depression by Affecting Trait Anxiety
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“When you become aware of the present moment, you gain access to resources you may not have had before. You may not be able to change a situation, but you can mindfully change your response to it. You can choose a more constructive and productive way of dealing with stress rather than a counterproductive or even destructive way of dealing with it.” – Mindful
A characterizing feature of anxiety disorders is recurring thoughts, such as impending disaster, that they may realize are unreasonable, but are unable to shake. Indeed, Mindfulness practices have been shown to be quite effective in relieving anxiety. Anxiety often co-occurs with depression. Mindfulness training is also effective for treating depression. Anxiety disorders and depression have generally been treated with drugs. But there are considerable side effects and these drugs are often abused. So, there is a need to develop alternative treatments. Recently, it has been found that mindfulness training can be effective for anxiety disorders and for depression either alone or in combination with other therapies. The fact that anxiety and depression occur together so often suggests that they may be linked and mindfulness training may affect that linkage.
In today’s Research News article “The Factorial Structure of Trait Anxiety and Its Mediating Effect Between Mindfulness and Depression.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6212471/ ), Wang and colleagues recruited college students with depression and measured before and after training for trait anxiety, depression and mindfulness. A second set of students were provided with an 8-week program of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). It met once a week for 2.5 hours. MBCT was developed specifically to treat depression. It involves mindfulness training, containing sitting and walking meditation and body scan, and cognitive therapy to alter how the patient relates to the thought processes that often underlie and exacerbate psychological symptoms. These students were measured before and after training for trait anxiety, depression and mindfulness.
They then performed a factor analysis of the trait anxiety scale from the untreated group of students and identified two distinct factors; Trait Anxiety Present and Trait Anxiety Absent. They found that the higher the level of mindfulness the lower the levels of depression and both of the trait anxiety factors. In addition, the higher the levels of both of the trait anxiety factors, the higher the levels of depression. So, trait anxiety and depression covaried and mindfulness was associated with lower levels of these psychological issues. In a mediation analysis they discovered that the association of mindfulness with lower depression was mediated by the two trait anxiety factors. In other words, mindfulness was associated with lower trait anxiety and this was in turn associated with lower levels of depression.
In the second group of students they found that MBCT training resulted in significantly lower levels of depression and both trait anxiety factors. Importantly, after MBCT training the mediational relationship of mindfulness to trait anxiety to depression was still present. So, the training lowered levels of anxiety and depression but did not change their relationships with mindfulness, with trait anxiety changes associated with the changes in depression.
These results are interesting and suggest a high degree of relationship between trait anxiety and depression. This could represent a conceptual overlap in that both involve rumination regarding past events. On the other hand, it could indicate that anxiety and depression are separate but linked. Perhaps, feeling chronic anxiety may lead to depression. This would explain the mediation analysis wherein high mindfulness is associate with low anxiety and this tends to relieve depression.
So, mindfulness improves depression by affecting trait anxiety.
“mindfulness-based practices have proved to be helpful in promoting mental well-being, especially by reducing the symptoms of depression and anxiety in various populations. For people with medicine noncompliance issues or people unwilling to start formal psychotherapy, mindfulness-based therapies could be a beneficial alternative to consider.” Han Ding
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Wang, T., Li, M., Xu, S., Jiang, C., Gao, D., Wu, T., Lu, F., Liu, B., … Wang, J. (2018). The Factorial Structure of Trait Anxiety and Its Mediating Effect Between Mindfulness and Depression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 514. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00514
Abstract
Background: Increasing studies have found that high trait anxiety is a key susceptibility phenotype that causes depression. Mindfulness-based interventions can target on dealing with depressogenic vulnerability effectively. Evidence indicates that trait anxiety could affect the trajectory of anti-depressive psychotherapy, and play an important role in the relationship between mindfulness and depression. Furthermore, related studies have found that trait anxiety could involve factors beyond anxiety and be a two-factor construct instead of one-dimensional concept. This viewpoint provides a new prospective for exploring the pathways of the two factors of trait anxiety in the complex relationship and further understand the potential mechanism of vulnerable personality mediated the link of mindfulness and depression.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey and a preliminary intervention study were conducted. Thousand two hundred and sixty-two subjects completed a set of self-reported questionnaires that evaluated trait anxiety, mindfulness, and depressive symptoms. Twenty-Three eligible participants with depression were recruited to attend mindfulness-based cognitive training for eight weeks. The same questionnaires were completed 1 week before the training and 6 months after the training. Factor analysis was performed on the 1262-subject sample to explore and confirm the factorial structure of trait anxiety. In addition, mediating effect analysis was conducted in the two studies to test whether two factors of trait anxiety were mediators of the relationship between mindfulness and depression.
Results: The exploratory factor analysis extracted two dimensions of trait anxiety, namely, trait anxiety-present factor (TA-P) and trait anxiety-absent factor (TA-A). And confirmatory factor analysis showed that the fit of the two-factor model was acceptable. Both TA-P and TA-A were significantly negatively correlated with mindfulness and positively correlated with depression, and they played a mediating role between mindfulness and depression. The two factors of trait anxiety had multiple mediating effects on the relationship between mindfulness and depression, and the mediating effect of the TA-P factor was stronger than that of the TA-A factor.
Conclusion: Our results demonstrated a two-factor model of trait anxiety in the Chinese population. TA-P and TA-A played a multiple mediating role in the relationship between mindfulness and depression. The findings provide new perspectives for psychological interventions to treat depression for people with susceptible personalities. Aiming to reduce negative emotional tendencies (TA-P factor) and enhance positive cognition (TA-A factor) may achieve the early prevention and efficient treatment of depression.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6212471/