Skip to content

Mindfulness and rumination: does mindfulness training lead to reductions in the ruminative thinking associated with depression?

Mary Deyo, Kimberly A Wilson, Jason C Ong, Cheryl Koopman

Explore (New York, N.Y.) 2009 DOI: 10.1016/j.explore.2009.06.005 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Observational cohort Peer reviewed
Population Self-selected adult community sample
Topics Depression Meditation
Key findings Completers of the MBSR class showed increases in mindfulness and overall well-being, and decreases in rumination and symptoms of depression, supporting the hypothesis.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 1990) training on a self-selected adult community sample in the areas of mindfulness, rumination, depressive symptomatology and overall well-being. Targeting rumination was considered particularly important because a tendency toward rumination in nondepressed populations has been found to be predictive of subsequent onset of depression. As hypothesized, completers of the MBSR class showed increases in mindfulness and overall wellbeing, and decreases in rumination and symptoms of depression. Limitations of the study are discussed, as are the implications of these findings.