The BBC reports on a UK study showing that group meditation is just as effective as drug treatments for preventing relapses into depression. The research, in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (December 2008), in fact suggests that the group meditation was more effective than the medication: relapse rates were lower (47% versus 60%), and it was judged as better at “reducing residual depressive symptoms and psychiatric comorbidity and in improving quality of life in the physical and psychological domains”.
Now, this is not a surprising finding, not to me, anyway. The specific therapy used was Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, a combination of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and cognitive therapy. It’s a treatment which teaches people skills with which they can better deal with life, which improves their self-efficacy. As the authors put it, “MBCT is intended to enable people to learn to become more aware of the bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings associated with depressive relapse and to relate constructively to these experiences. It is based on theoretical and empirical work demonstrating that depressive relapse is associated with the reinstatement of automatic modes of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are counterproductive because they contribute to and maintain depressive relapse and recurrence (e.g., self-critical thinking and avoidance…).”
photo credit: Julianne.hide
Now, at the start of the study all of these patients were taking medication, which had been used to get their depression under control. They had all had at least three previous episodes of depression, had been medicated for the past six months, and were either in full or partial remission. The meditation group were encouraged to taper their medication off about halfway through the 8-week meditation course, while the other group maintained theirs. So this isn’t “drugs vs. no drugs”. Drugs have their place. Interestingly, though, patients who had an earlier age of onset of depression or a more severe last episode were more likely to taper off the drugs than others. Perhaps they were more motivated.
Healthcare is complex enough that to talk about “the” future of healthcare is somewhat simplistic. But it seems that a future of healthcare is to spend more time and money on non-drug therapies where they have equal or better outcomes to drug therapies, and to empower people to deal with their own health and wellbeing. I find that trend encouraging.
Technorati Tags: MBCT, cognitive therapy, mindfulness, meditation, self-efficacy, Health 2.0, healthcare, non-drug therapies, drug alternatives, medication, depression, group therapy, awareness
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