Depression and Anxiety
January 1, 2024
Jelle Lubbers, Dirk E. M. Geurts, Philip Spinhoven et al.
10 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) added to treatment as usual reduced depressive symptoms and overall functional impairment more than treatment as usual alone in patients with persistent or recurrent major depressive disorder, with medium and small effect sizes respectively. The therapy worked better for those who started with higher levels of rumination and perseverative thinking and lower levels of self-compassion; these traits moderated the treatment's effects. No mediators of MBCT's effects were identified, as the therapy did not change the assessed potential mediators by mid-treatment. Allocating MBCT based on patients' rumination and self-compassion levels could make symptom reduction more efficient.
Journal of General Internal Medicine
May 19, 2025
Marieke Arts-De Jong, Dirk E. M. Geurts, Philip Spinhoven et al.
2 citations
A 4-week therapist-assisted mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program was not superior to a minimal self-guided mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) for improving mental health among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a randomized trial with 201 participants, both interventions led to similar, significant reductions in depressive, anxiety, and somatic symptoms from baseline to 6-month follow-up (Cohen's d -0.78 for MBSR, -0.72 for self-guided MBI). The therapist-assisted MBSR showed a greater reduction in symptoms immediately after the intervention and exclusively increased posttraumatic growth at that point. Both approaches improved posttraumatic symptoms, insomnia, repetitive negative thinking, mental well-being, mindfulness, and self-compassion.
BMC Psychiatry
February 14, 2025
Maud Schepers, Paul Lagerweij, Dirk E. M. Geurts et al.
2 citations
Internalizing problems like worrying, anxiety, and low mood are increasingly common in youth and may signal early-stage mental illness. This randomized controlled trial will test whether a mindfulness-based program called Learning to Offset Stress, added to usual care, reduces internalizing symptoms in 155 help-seeking youth aged 16–25. The program combines mindfulness exercises with mindful physical activity and yoga over eight weekly sessions. Assessments occur at baseline, end of treatment, and at two and six months after treatment. The primary outcome is the level of internalizing problems measured by the Adult Self Report questionnaire. Secondary outcomes include self-compassion, rumination, experiential avoidance, and well-being, along with brain imaging and cognitive tasks. The trial aims to clarify how early mindfulness intervention may alter symptom development and mental illness progression.
Open Science Framework
January 1, 2026
Annemarie van der Meij, Sotiris Poyiadis, Andrea Cipriani et al.
This preregistration describes an update and extension of a meta-analysis examining ketamine and esketamine for adults with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. The project is nested within a larger network meta-analysis of next-step strategies for treatment-resistant depression. It restricts interventions to ketamine and esketamine regimens versus placebo, structures outcomes into three time windows (24–72 hours, 1–3 weeks, and 4–12 weeks), and pools results using pairwise random-effects meta-analyses rather than network meta-analysis due to expected lack of direct comparisons between treatment nodes. Short-term outcomes will be extracted from longer-term trials. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses are exploratory.
Mindfulness
July 1, 2024
Jelle Lubbers, Philip Spinhoven, Mira B. Cladder-Micus et al.
After Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), many patients with major depressive disorder shift toward healthier mindfulness profiles, and those who change profiles show greater improvement in mental health than those who do not. Among 500 patients, four mindfulness profiles were identified: Very low mindfulness, Non-judgmentally aware, Judgmentally observing, and High mindfulness. Of 168 patients initially in the Very low mindfulness profile, 71 moved to Non-judgmentally aware and 30 to High mindfulness. Of 129 in Non-judgmentally aware, 49 moved to High mindfulness; of 141 in Judgmentally observing, 37 moved to High mindfulness. All 61 patients already in High mindfulness remained there. Profile change was linked to above-average improvement in depressive symptoms, functional impairment, worry, and self-compassion, while no change (except staying in High mindfulness) was linked to below-average improvement.
Mindfulness
February 1, 2024
Jelle Lubbers, Philip Spinhoven, Mira B. Cladder-Micus et al.
In patients with current or remitted major depressive disorder, four distinct mindfulness profiles were identified using latent profile analysis on questionnaire data from 754 individuals. Three profiles matched those found in previous depressed samples (very low mindfulness, high mindfulness, non-judgmentally aware), and one matched a profile from non-clinical populations (judgmentally observing). Those with high mindfulness had the best mental health—fewer depressive symptoms, less worry, less functional impairment, and more self-compassion—while those with very low mindfulness had the worst. However, mindfulness profiles did not predict how much mental health changed after Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, suggesting profiles are linked to current mental health but not to treatment response.
BJPsych Open
March 9, 2023
Dirk E. M. Geurts, Felix R. Compen, Marleen H.C.T. van Beek et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) significantly reduced depressive symptoms in a large naturalistic cohort of 765 patients with major depressive disorder treated in a real-world outpatient clinic in the Netherlands. Depressive symptoms decreased by an average of 7.7 points on a self-report scale, a large effect. Improvements in worry, mindfulness skills, and self-compassion also occurred and were linked to changes in depression. The benefits were independent of whether patients had recurrent depression or were currently in remission. Patients who were unemployed showed less improvement. Treatment adherence was high at 94%, though patients with lower education were more likely to not complete the program. The findings show that MBCT works as well in routine clinical practice as in controlled research settings.
Cognition & Emotion
December 22, 2021
T. D. Stalmeier, Jelle Lubbers, M. Cladder-Micus et al.
Negative self-referential processing is well-studied in unipolar depression but less in bipolar disorder (BD). In 49 patients with BD from a randomized trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), those receiving MBCT plus treatment as usual (TAU, n=23) showed a reduction in negative self-referential memory bias over time compared with TAU alone (n=26). At baseline, all three measures of self-referential processing—positive and negative attributions and negative memory bias—were linked to depressive symptoms. The findings are preliminary and suggest that reducing negative self-referential memory bias may help prevent and treat depressive symptoms in BD through MBCT.
Thalia D.M. Stalmeier, Jelle Lubbers, Mira B. Cladder-Micus et al.
In people with bipolar disorder, negative self-referential processing—how one attributes negative traits to oneself and remembers them—is linked to depressive symptoms. In a randomized trial, 49 participants with bipolar disorder were assigned to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy plus treatment as usual or treatment as usual alone. Those who received MBCT showed a reduction in negative self-referential memory bias over time compared to the control group, while positive and negative self-attributions did not change differently between groups. The findings suggest that MBCT may specifically reduce negative memory bias, which could play a role in preventing or treating depressive symptoms in bipolar disorder.