Comparison of cognitive behavioral therapy and third-wave-mindfulness-based therapies for patients suffering from depression measured using the Beck-Depression-Inventory (BDI): A systematic literature review and network-meta-analysis.
Journal of affective disorders June 15, 2025 Alexander Buschner, Christian Makiol, Jue Huang et al. 5 citations
Both mindfulness-based therapies and cognitive-behavioral therapy produce significant and clinically important reductions in depression symptoms, but mindfulness-based therapies do not show a meaningful advantage over CBT. A network meta-analysis of eight mindfulness-based and ten CBT studies, all comparing against treatment as usual, found that while an unweighted common-effects model suggested a slightly larger effect for mindfulness-based therapies, the difference was below the clinically relevant threshold. When using a random-effects model or weighted analysis, no significant difference between the two approaches emerged. The analysis was limited by high risk of bias, heterogeneity among studies, and low quality of evidence, highlighting the need for direct head-to-head comparisons.