Mindfulness based cognitive therapy for psychiatric disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Mindfulness- based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a meditation program based on an integration of Cognitive behavioural therapy and Mindfulness-based stress reduction. The aim of the present work is to review and conduct a meta-analysis of the current findings about the efficacy of MBCT for psychiatric patients. A literature search was undertaken using five electronic databases and references of retrieved articles. Main findings included the following: 1) MBCT in adjunct to usual care was significantly better than usual care alone for reducing major depression (MD) relapses in patients with three or more prior depressive episodes (4 studies), 2) MBCT plus gradual discontinuation of maintenance ADs was associated to similar relapse rates at 1year as compared with continuation of maintenance antidepressants (1 study), 3) the augmentation of MBCT could be useful for reducing residual depressive symptoms in patients with MD (2 studies) and for reducing anxiety symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder in remission (1 study) and in patients with some anxiety disorders (2 studies). However, several methodological shortcomings including small sample sizes, non-randomized design of some studies and the absence of studies comparing MBCT to control groups designed to distinguish specific from non-specific effects of such practice underscore the necessity for further research.

Psychiatry Res. 2011 May 30;187(3):441-53. Epub 2010 Sep 16. Chiesa A, Serretti A. Institute of Psychiatry, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. albertopnl@yahoo.it