For people with recurrent depression, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces the risk of depressive relapse within a 60-week follow-up period compared with usual care or other active treatments, including antidepressants. A meta-analysis of individual patient data from 9 randomized trials involving 1258 patients (mean age 47.1 years, 75% female) found that those receiving MBCT had a 31% lower risk of relapse versus no MBCT (hazard ratio 0.69), and a 21% lower risk versus other active treatments (hazard ratio 0.79). Sociodemographic and psychiatric variables did not significantly modify the treatment effect, but greater severity of depressive symptoms before treatment was associated with a larger benefit from MBCT.
Embodied cognition research shows that thinking involves re-enacting motor and sensory experiences, a process called simulation. Evidence supports a 'distributed plus hub' model where simulation underpins knowledge. The authors argue that emotional disorders like depression arise from failed simulation: semantic processing reactivates motor-sensory simulations linked to low mood, and people may truncate this simulation by relying on abstract, language-based thinking to reduce emotional distress, which maintains psychopathology. The review examines how truncated simulation contributes to emotional disorders and discusses implications for treatment.