Reduce Depression with Mindfulness Training in Primary Care
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Mindfulness and other meditations, particularly combined with cognitive therapy, work just as well for anxiety or depression as the medications do, but they don’t have those side effects,” – Daniel Goleman
Clinically diagnosed depression is the most common mental illness, affecting over 6% of the population. Major depression can be quite debilitating. Depression can be difficult to treat and is usually treated with anti-depressive medication. But, of patients treated initially with drugs only about a third attained remission of the depression. After repeated and varied treatments including drugs, therapy, exercise etc. only about two thirds of patients attained remission. But drugs often have troubling side effects and can lose effectiveness over time. In addition, many patients who achieve remission have relapses and recurrences of the depression. Even after remission some symptoms of depression may still be present (residual symptoms).
Being depressed and not responding to treatment or relapsing is a terribly difficult situation. The patients are suffering, and nothing appears to work to relieve their intense depression. Suicide becomes a real possibility. So, it is imperative that other treatments be identified that can relieve the suffering. Mindfulness training has been shown to be an effective treatment for depression and its recurrence and even in the cases where drugs fail.
The most commonly used mindfulness technique for the treatment of depression is Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBCT 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. MBCT has been shown to be as effective as antidepressant drugs in relieving the symptoms of depression and preventing depression reoccurrence and relapse. In addition, it appears to be effective as either a supplement to or a replacement for these drugs. The research, however, has been performed in controlled settings. So, there is a need to determine if it’s effective in real world applications such as in primary care.
In today’s Research News article “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Primary Care and the Role of Depression Severity and Treatment Attendance.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8628140/ ) Elices and colleagues recruited patients through primary care physicians who had participated in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for mental health issues. MBCT involved 8 weekly 2.5-hour sessions and included daily home practice. The patients were measured for personality, and depression.
They found that after Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) patients who were in the normal range for depression prior to therapy had small but significant reductions in depression while those who were classified as either mildly, moderately, or severely depressed prior to therapy had large and significant reductions in depression. Hence, in real world applications, .MBCT significantly reduced depression regardless of the initial state of depression.
Mindfulness training has been repeatedly shown to reduce depression in a wide range of ill and healthy participants. But most of the research involved systematic controlled research. The present study shows that even in the messy and uncontrolled situation of real world primary care applications, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is very effective treatment for depression.
So, reduce depression with mindfulness training in primary care.
“Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a group program that is generally used to delay or prevent recurrence of major depression, but can also ameliorate acute depressive syndromes and symptoms.” – Zindel Segal,
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Twitter @MindfulResearch
Study Summary
Elices, M., Pérez-Sola, V., Pérez-Aranda, A., Colom, F., Polo, M., Martín-López, L. M., & Gárriz, M. (2021). The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Primary Care and the Role of Depression Severity and Treatment Attendance. Mindfulness, 1–11. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01794-3
Abstract
Objectives
Evidence suggests the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to prevent depression relapse and decrease depressive symptoms during the acute phase. However, the effectiveness of MBCT in real-world heterogeneous samples treated in clinical health settings, including primary care, has received little attention. This study had two aims: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of MBCT delivered in primary care considering pre-treatment depression scores and (2) to explore the role of participants’ characteristics on symptom improvement.
Methods
Data were obtained from 433 individuals who received MBCT. Participants completed the Personality Inventory for ICD-11 (PiCD) pretreatment and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) pre- and post-treatment.
Results
Sixty percent presented moderate-to-severe depression according to scores on the BDI-II, 18.1% presented mild depression, and 21.7% were in the non-depressed range. The severity of pre-treatment depressive symptoms was associated with outcomes. Most individuals who lacked depressive symptoms at baseline remained in the non-clinical range after the treatment. Those in the severe group benefited the most from the intervention, since 35.6% were considered recovered. Rates of deterioration ranged from 2.1 to 2.7%, depending on the depression-baseline scores. Depression severity at the entrance, attendance, and age, but not personality traits, appear to be related to symptom improvement.
Conclusions
According to our results, MBCT can be effectively and safely delivered in primary care.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8628140/