Investigating change in the ability to decentre and depressive symptomatology over the course of a six-month mindfulness-based intervention in patients with persistent depression.
Jonathan Hamilton, Thorsten Barnhofer
Psychiatry research November 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2024.116153
Summary
A remarkable 70% of participants in a six-month online blended mindfulness intervention for depression completed the program, engaging in an average of 68.6% of practices. Over time, improvements in decentering skills correlated with reductions in depressive symptoms. The analysis revealed that initial gains in decentering led to further symptom relief, indicating that sustained practice enhances these skills and supports recovery. This suggests that longer-term mindfulness training could be crucial for individuals dealing with persistent depression.
Abstract
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for depression use regular mindfulness practice as a means of helping patients build skills that allow them to respond more adaptively to negative mood. Although effects of practice are assumed to accumulate over time, little is known about the trajectories of change in skills and symptoms beyond the duration of standard eight-week interventions. Forty-four patients with persistent depression were recruited to participate in a 6-month blended MBI and provided self-reports of depressive symptomatology and their ability to decenter, the core skill cultivated in MBIs, at baseline, mid-intervention and after the end of the intervention. Trajectories of change were analysed using latent change score modelling. Thirty-one participants (70 %) completed the intervention having engaged in 68.6 % of practices on average. Trajectories of change in decentering and depression were best described by a combination of a constant change component and a limiting factor indicating decreasing rates with higher previous gains. Bivariate analyses showed significant lagged change to change coupling linking earlier changes in decentering with later changes in symptoms. The findings suggest that decentering skills increase throughout longer periods of practice and drive changes in symptoms to move patients closer to recovery or remission.