Could Mindfulness Effectively Treat Depression?

Group-based behavioral activation with mindfulness (BAM) may be an effective treatment option vs usual care for depression in primary care, findings from a recent randomized controlled trial show.

During the trial, adult participants aged 18 years or older with subthreshold depression were randomly assigned to treatment with BAM (n = 115) or usual care (n = 116).
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BAM participants received eight 2-hour weekly BAM sessions, led by trained allied health care workers, while the remaining participants received usual medical care with no additional psychological interventions.

Twelve-month improvements in depression were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Factors including quality of life, activity and circumstances change, functional impairment, and anxiety were taken into account at baseline, end of intervention, 5 months, and 12 months.

Findings revealed that participants who were treated with BAM experienced slightly greater improvement in depressive symptoms than those who received usual care, with a between-group mean difference in Beck Depression Inventory-II score of -3.85.

In addition, at 12 months, a smaller proportion of participants in the BAM group had major depressive disorder compared with the usual care group (10.8% vs 26.8%).

However, the researchers noted, little between-group difference was observed in regard to quality of life, activity and circumstances change, functional impairment, and anxiety outcomes.

“Group BAM appears to be efficacious for decreasing depressive symptoms and reducing the incidence of major depression among patients with subthreshold depression in primary care, although generalizability of our findings may be limited,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Wong SYS, Sun YY, Chan ATY, et al. Treating subthreshold depression in primary care: a randomized controlled trial of behavioral activation with mindfulness. Ann Fam Med. 2018;16(2):111-119. doi:10.1370/afm.2206.