Mindfulness and Depression: Setting and Context

            Depression affects an estimated 322 million people worldwide and the rates appear to be growing. The disease not only takes a serious toll on individuals’ wellbeing, interpersonal relationships, and work performance, but also places a burden on our healthcare system at large. Most people diagnosed with major depressive disorder don’t find remission, and those that do often relapse back within a year or two.

            Studies into the relationship of depression and emotional regulation have found that an individual’s ability to savor the moment may be the sole predictor of depression. Savoring the moment is related to an individual’s capacity to enjoy, and those low in this trait generally have low positive affect and high negative affect. Therefore, if we can find a way to improve an individual’s ability to savor the moment, it seems logical that we will see reduction in symptoms of depression.

            Mindfulness meditation may be a potential remedy in this search for improved emotional regulation and alleviation of depressive symptoms. By now, you most likely have heard anecdotes of magically improved lifestyle and positive emotion by individuals practicing mindfulness. In a recent study, an 8-week mindfulness meditation intervention has actually demonstrated increases in positive affectivity as well as lower depression rates. However, there is still much to be understood of this phenomenon.

            Research at the University of Cambridge has found that, indeed, mindfulness courses can reduce symptoms of depression and improve mental wellbeing, although not for everyone. In 20 of their 136 trials, the data suggested that mindfulness programs may in fact not alleviate depression. When filtering to look at only the high-quality trials, they found improvements to stress levels, but not in depression. They believe these findings reflect that mindfulness on average is better at treating depression than doing nothing, but it may not work for everyone and it may not work in every setting.

            Other recent studies have looked at which settings may be the most useful in applying mindfulness to treat depression. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) appears to be a promising treatment option for relieving the symptoms of depression as well as preventing relapse. Mindfulness appears to increase awareness of internal experiences which may improve a patient’s symptoms directly while also improving the ability to communicate and relate to a therapist, improving the efficacy of cognitive therapy.

            Studies like this suggest that mindfulness alone does not appear to be as impactful as its supplementation to other forms of treatment. There is still much to be explored in fulling understanding the optimal application of mindfulness in healthcare, but it seems to be a hopeful concept. With focus on integration of the best aspects of different treatment approaches, we may begin to find effective, reliable treatments in fighting the depression epidemic.

Lee, Sang-Hyuk, and Sung Joon Cho. “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depressive Disorders.” Major Depressive Disorder, 2021, pp. 295–310., doi:10.1007/978-981-33-6044-0_16.

“Mindfulness Can Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing -- but Unlikely to Work for Everyone.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 11 Jan. 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210111143422.htm.