Meditation Helps Depression As Much As Drugs

We've written about the benefits of meditation many times, showing how it improves visual perception, can help with disease, and helps people in jail manage anger. Here's some more on that.

A new study in the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that for people suffering from depression, who had taking drugs to control it but whose symptoms were in remission, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was just as good at preventing the return of symptoms as was continuing with drugs.

From National Post:

Participants in the study...were all treated with antidepressants until their symptoms went into remission. The 84 subjects were then divided into three groups: one that stayed on the drugs, one that took placebos, and one that stopped taking the drugs and received MBCT. Relapse rates after 18 months for patients in the MCBT group did not differ from patients on antidepressants, both being in the 30% range, compared to a 70% relapse rate for those on placebos.

For those wanting more, here's the original paper: Antidepressant Monotherepy vs Sequential Pharmacotherapy and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, or Placebo, for Relapse Prophylaxis in Recurrent Depression

What's MBCT? Their description with my emphasis: "MBCT is designed to help people who suffer repeated bouts of depression and chronic unhappiness. It combines the ideas of cognitive therapy with meditative practices and attitudes based on the cultivation of mindfulness. The heart of this work lies in becoming acquainted with the modes of mind that often characterize mood disorders while simultaneously learning to develop a new relationship to them.

That last part is really beneficial to anyone, even if you've never been depressed or been chronically unhappy. Becoming aware of different moods and the "mode of mind" that accompany them can be profoundly helpful when you get angry with someone in your life, when you become impatient in line at the store or when stuck behind someone in traffic, in many common situations. Once you take the split second break to recognize the mode of mind and subsequent behavior when you're in one of these situations, it's much easier to de-escalate the situation and regain composure.

photo: Matthew McDermott