Mindfulness therapy works as well as anti-depressant drugs
'It makes complete sense to me that
this wonderful faculty of thinking can both get us into trouble and also
get us out of trouble,' researcher says
Therapy based on the controversial concept of 'mindfulness' works as
well as some anti-depressant drugs, according to a major new study.
Inspired in part by Buddhist philosophy, mindfulness involves
training the brain to deal with negative emotions using techniques such
as meditation, breathing exercises and yoga.
Mindfulness uses techniques such as meditation to help
people overcome depression -REX |
Some critics have claimed mindfulness techniques can bring on panic
attacks and lead to paranoia, delusions or depression.
Research
But the new study - the largest-ever analysis of research on the
subject - found mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) helped people
just as much as commonly prescribed anti-depressant drugs and that there
was no evidence of any harmful effects.
People suffering from depression who received MBCT were 31 per cent
less likely to suffer a relapse during the next 60 weeks, the
researchers reported in a paper in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Professor Willem Kuyken, the lead author of the paper, said: "This
new evidence for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy ... is very
heartening.
"While MBCT is not a panacea, it does clearly offer those with a
substantial history of depression a new approach to learning skills to
stay well in the long-term."
He stressed that different people required different treatments and
mindfulness should be viewed as one option alongside drugs and other
forms of therapy.
Professor Kuyken, an Oxford University clinical psychologist and
director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and other experts around the
world have set themselves an ambitious target.
"We need to do more research, however, to get recovery rates closer
to 100 per cent and to help prevent the first onset of depression,
earlier in life," he said.
Traditions
"These are programmes of work we are pursuing at the University of
Oxford and with our collaborators around the world."
He stressed that while mindfulness may share a "lineage" with
Buddhism and other "contemplative traditions", the way it was used in
mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was "entirely secular".
"It makes complete sense to me that this wonderful faculty of
thinking can both get us into trouble and also get us out of trouble,"
Professor Kuyken said.
"It's a sort of mental training. It's about training the mind so
people can see negative thoughts, negative feelings, the early signs of
a depressive relapse, and learn the skills to respond to those in a way
that makes them more resilient."
A woman in one of his classes would start to have thoughts such as
"I'm no good, I'm not a very good mother, I'm going to mess up my
children and they are going to suffer from depression as I do", he said.
But, after the training, Professor Kuyken said the woman was "able to
recognise her negative thoughts as negative thoughts not facts, and not
engage with them as much".
"She developed a metaphor of a wrecking ball. Instead of being
knocked over, she'd stand back and let the wrecking ball swing through
her mind," he added.
Mindfulness has won the backing of NHS advisory body, the National
Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), and the Mental Health
Foundation research charity.
A study published in the Lancet last year also found mindfulness
could be as effective as drugs.
However, the book The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You? by
psychologists Dr Miguel Farias and Dr Catherine Wikholm argued there was
a need to look into the "dark side" of mindfulness.
Negative
"Mindfulness can have negative effects for some people, even if
you're doing it for only 20 minutes a day," Dr Farias told the Guardian
last year.
"It's difficult to tell how common [negative] experiences are,
because mindfulness researchers have failed to measure them, and may
even have discouraged participants from reporting them by attributing
the blame to them."
- The Independent
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