Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology January 1, 2000 John D. Teasdale, Zindel V. Segal, James Williams et al. 2,613 citations
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.