Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Preliminary Evaluation
Mark A. Craigie, Clare S. Rees, Ali Marsh, Paula Nathan
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy October 1, 2008 DOI: 10.1017/s135246580800458x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Uncontrolled pre-post design Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 23 |
| Population | Adults with a primary diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) |
| Intervention | Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) |
| Duration | 9 weekly 2-hour group sessions, with post-treatment assessment and 6-week and 3-month follow-ups |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key points | MBCT significantly reduced pathological worry, stress, and other symptoms and improved quality of life at post-treatment, with gains maintained at follow-up; however, recovery rates based on standardized criteria were very small at post-treatment but improved by follow-up. |
Abstract
Abstract Mindfulness training has been proposed as a potentially important new approach for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, to date only a few studies have investigated mindfulness training for GAD. The aim of this study was to further investigate symptom change and recovery in pathological worry after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) using an uncontrolled pre-post design. Twenty-three adults with a primary diagnosis of GAD participated in the study. The MBCT program involved 9 weekly 2-hour group sessions, a post-treatment assessment session, and 6-week and 3-month follow-up sessions. Intent-to-treat analysis revealed significant improvements in pathological worry, stress, quality of life, and a number of other symptoms at post-treatment, which were maintained at follow-up. Attrition was also low, and MBCT was perceived as a credible and acceptable intervention. However, when applying standardized recovery criteria to pathological worry scores, the rate of recovery at post-treatment was very small, although improved at follow-up. Overall, the findings suggest MBCT is definitely worthy of further investigation as a treatment option for GAD, but falls well short of outcomes achieved by past research. Possible reasons for the poor rate of recovery, implications, and limitations are briefly outlined.