Mindfulness‑based therapy does not harm patients with depression

MBCT is a widely used approach that combines cognitive‑behavioral therapy with mindfulness practices, including meditation. It is actively used to help people with recurrent episodes of depression prevent relapse. As early as 2016, a meta‑analysis of nine studies confirmed the effectiveness of MBCT and largely contributed to the method becoming a recommended way to prevent recurrent episodes of depression. However, later, some studies emerged in which patients reported negative experiences during therapy. This raised questions about the safety of the approach.

The key problem with early studies that recorded negative effects was the lack of a control group, meaning it was impossible to accurately distinguish between the deterioration directly associated with the therapy and natural fluctuations in symptoms. To address this issue, a team of scientists from the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin‑Madison, together with colleagues from other universities, conducted a re‑analysis of the data.

The researchers examined anonymized data from individual participants in nine randomized controlled trials included in the 2016 meta‑analysis. In total, the analysis included information on 1,258 adult patients who were in partial or complete remission from recurrent depression. Experts compared the likelihood of worsening depressive symptoms after undergoing MBCT with the indicators in control groups, some of which included patients taking antidepressants.

The results showed that MBCT does not increase the risk of symptom deterioration compared to control conditions. Moreover, a number of additional analyses revealed that mindfulness‑based therapy, on the contrary, could reduce the risk of the condition worsening, including in relation to other approaches, including the use of antidepressants.

At the same time, the authors remind us that all the studies included in the work concerned patients in remission, so the conclusions cannot necessarily be extended to people with an acute depressive episode or to other clinical groups. Nevertheless, the data obtained support the further use of MBCT as an evidence‑based method for helping people with recurrent depression. The scientific community also hopes that in future randomized trials, the subjective experience of patients will be assessed more extensively, as this will help to gain an even more detailed understanding of how different people respond to therapy.