Psychological Medicine
July 13, 2026
Thorsten Barnhofer, Barnaby D. Dunn, Clara Strauss et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was developed for relapse prevention in people with remitted depression but is increasingly used for those with difficult-to-treat depression (DTD). A key question regarding this broader application is whether ongoing depressive symptoms constrain therapeutic responsiveness or disrupt MBCT's proposed mechanism, decentering. We explored whether baseline...
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
June 12, 2026
Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al.
1 citation
INTRODUCTION: Around a third of patients with major depressive disorder experience persistent symptoms despite usual treatments. Identifying scalable, psychological treatment options is critical to reduce the burden associated with difficult-to-treat depression (DTD). We examined the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) compared with treatment as usual (TAU) and other active...
medRxiv
June 9, 2025
Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al.
preprint
ABSTRACT: Introduction: About 30% of depressed patients suffer from a protracted course in which the disorder continues to cause significant burden despite treatment efforts. While originally developed for relapse prevention, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has increasingly been investigated in depressed patients with such ‘difficult-to-treat’ courses. This is a protocol for an...
The Lancet Psychiatry
June 1, 2025
Thorsten Barnhofer, Barnaby D. Dunn, Clara Strauss et al.
9 citations
Non-remission after psychological therapy for major depressive disorder is common, yet there are no established further-line treatments. In the UK National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapies programme, about 50% of patients with depression who come to the end of the stepped care pathway do not show remission of symptoms. We aimed to investigate whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy...
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
September 1, 2024
Barnaby D. Dunn, Laura Warbrick, Rachel Hayes et al.
10 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a viable alternative to maintenance antidepressant medication (M-ADM) to reduce risk of relapse/recurrence (RR) in recurrent depression, but its mechanism of action is not yet fully articulated. This secondary analysis of the PREVENT trial examined if MBCT with support to taper medication (MBCT-TS) reduces risk of RR in part by enhancing positive...
Trials
January 19, 2023
Thorsten Barnhofer, Barnaby D. Dunn, Clara Strauss et al.
Background Major depression represents a pressing challenge for health care. In England, Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services provide evidence-based psychological therapies in a stepped-care approach to patients with depression. While introduction of these services has successfully increased access to therapy, estimates suggest that about 50% of depressed patients who...
Mindfulness
2023
Barnaby D. Dunn, Hanna Wiedemann, Merle Kock et al.
Abstract Objectives Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (MBCT-D) has been shown to be effective at repairing positive affect deficits in depressed individuals, but the mechanism of action underpinning these changes has not been empirically examined. To address this issue, secondary analyses of two randomised controlled trials in individuals with residual depression were...
Mindfulness
July 21, 2018
Modi Alsubaie, Chris M Dickens, Barnaby D. Dunn et al.
29 citations
Depression co-occurs in 20 % of people with cardiovascular disorders, can persist for years, and predicts worse physical health outcomes. While psychosocial treatments have been shown to treat acute depression effectively in those with comorbid cardiovascular disorders, to date, there has been no evaluation of approaches aiming to prevent relapse and treat residual depression symptoms in this...
Clinical Psychology Review
July 2017
Modi Alsubaie, Rebecca Abbott, Barnaby D. Dunn et al.
Recently, there has been an increased interest in studying the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for people with psychological and physical problems. However, the mechanisms of action in these interventions that lead to beneficial physical and psychological outcomes have yet to be clearly identified. The aim of this paper is to review, systematically, the evidence to date on the...
Frontiers in Psychology
June 9, 2015
Norman A. S. Farb, Jennifer Daubenmier, Cynthia Price et al.
630 citations
Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body. As such, interoception is critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation, and well-being. And yet, despite its importance, interoception remains poorly understood within modern science. This paper reviews interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception, with the goal of presenting a unified perspective...