Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), a group intervention, trains recovered recurrently depressed patients to disengage from depressive thinking patterns that can trigger relapse. In a randomized trial with 145 recovered recurrently depressed patients, MBCT plus treatment as usual was compared to treatment as usual alone over 60 weeks. For patients with three or more previous depressive episodes (77% of the sample), MBCT significantly reduced the risk of relapse or recurrence. However, for patients with only two previous episodes, MBCT did not reduce relapse. MBCT offers a promising, cost-effective psychological approach to preventing relapse in recovered recurrently depressed patients.
Recovered depressed patients who received a psychological treatment designed to reduce relapse risk recalled fewer generic memories in response to cue words, while those receiving usual care showed no change. This suggests that overgeneral autobiographical memory, previously observed in depressed, suicidal, and PTSD patients, can be modified through treatment.
Mindfulness-based clinical interventions are generally effective, but applying mindfulness as a generic technique across different disorders without tailoring it to the specific factors maintaining each condition is cautioned against. The text raises six issues: mindfulness can be unhelpful in some contexts; effective mindfulness instruction includes a clear problem formulation shared with clients; there may be multiple dimensions of effectiveness underlying its apparent simplicity; mindfulness originated from a particular view of emotional suffering that implies broader changes beyond meditation; professionals should match mindfulness components to the targeted psychopathology; and mindfulness may affect processes common to different pathologies.