Positive Shifts in Emotion Evaluation Following Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in Remitted Depressed Participants
Mindfulness March 1, 2021 Kate Williams, Rebecca Elliott, Thorsten Barnhofer et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) helps people with remitted major depression evaluate situations less negatively and more positively, a shift that correlates with increased mindfulness. In a non-randomized trial, 40 participants received MBCT, 33 continued treatment as usual, and 42 never-depressed controls were assessed. After the 8-week MBCT program, only the MBCT group showed a change in emotion evaluation ratings, from more negative to more positive, while both the MBCT and treatment-as-usual groups improved slightly in recognizing facial emotions. The findings suggest MBCT specifically encourages more positive appraisals of life events rather than altering basic emotion processing.