For patients with panic disorder or social anxiety disorder, adding mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to usual care costs about JPY 13,885 more per patient over 8 weeks but improves anxiety symptoms and quality of life. The incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) was JPY 1,566,357, well below Japan's willingness-to-pay threshold of JPY 5,000,000, giving a 77.5% probability of being cost-effective. MBCT reduced state anxiety by 10.13 points and trait anxiety by 12.00 points on the STAI. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the findings were robust.
A feasibility randomized controlled trial compares augmented mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with follow-up sessions to augmented MBCT without follow-up sessions for adults aged 20–65 with panic disorder, agoraphobia, or social anxiety disorder that has not remitted after at least 4 weeks of usual treatment. The 8-week MBCT program includes a 10-month follow-up period. Primary outcomes are inclusion rate, dropout rate, attendance rate, and clinical measures at 8 weeks and 5, 8, and 12 months. Recruitment began in January 2020 and 43 participants were enrolled by January 2021; data collection is expected to finish by May 2022. The study is limited by mixed intervention delivery modes and lack of a pharmacotherapy-alone arm.
Eight weeks of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, followed by two monthly classes, improves both cognitive and affective aspects of subjective well-being and eudaimonic well-being in healthy community residents with initially low life satisfaction. Cognitive well-being and mindfulness skills improved significantly by 8 weeks, and these gains continued through the 16-week follow-up. Positive affect and eudaimonic well-being showed significant improvement only at 16 weeks. The order of improvement was cognitive, then positive affective, then eudaimonic well-being.