People with recurrent depression may benefit from mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, according to a new study.
The study took place in England and included 424 people with recurrent major depression. They were randomly assigned to stay on their antidepressant medications or to gradually wean off the drugs and receive mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Weaning off the drugs slowly and carefully is important because stopping suddenly can cause dreadful withdrawal symptoms in many cases (as we have discussed). There were just over 200 individuals in each group.
Comparable Benefit
After two years, there were similar relapse rates for both treatments: 44 percent for mindfulness therapy and 47 percent for medications.
While no one could claim that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is superior to medication, it works about equally well and has much less likelihood of causing side effects or withdrawal difficulties. It offers people who would prefer to minimize their use of antidepressants an alternate strategy that appears to be safe and reasonably effective.
