Journal of consulting and clinical psychology
September 1, 2024
Barnaby D Dunn, Laura Warbrick, Rachel Hayes et al.
10 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with support to taper medication (MBCT-TS) increases positive affect more than continuing antidepressant medication alone, and this increase partly explains the reduced risk of relapse or recurrence in people with recurrent depression. In a randomized trial of 424 adults with three or more prior depressive episodes, MBCT-TS led to significantly greater positive affect at posttreatment compared with maintenance antidepressants. Across both treatments, higher positive affect at intake predicted a lower hazard of relapse over two years. Among participants who had not relapsed by posttreatment, a greater rise in positive affect mediated a reduced risk of subsequent relapse. The findings indicate that boosting positive affect is one mechanism through which MBCT-TS protects against relapse when discontinuing antidepressants.
Journal of consulting and clinical psychology
April 1, 2024
Yuval Hadash, Tatyana Veksler, Omer Dar et al.
8 citations
Intensive meditation retreats produce primarily pleasant peak experiences—such as deep peace or sudden insights—rather than unpleasant ones. In a preregistered study, 96 adults attending 6-day Vipassana retreats reported more pleasant peak experiences than 47 matched controls from the same meditation community. Unpleasant peak experiences did not differ significantly between groups. At two-week follow-up, both pleasant and most unpleasant peak experiences were rated as more beneficial than harmful, with a large average effect size (Cohen's d = 1.61). The findings contradict uncontrolled retrospective studies suggesting that intensive meditation training often leads to adverse experiences.
Journal of consulting and clinical psychology
April 1, 2025
Judy Garber, Denise A Chavira, Emma K Adam et al.
5 citations
An online, coached mindfulness intervention reduced stressor-reactive negative affect—negative emotions triggered by daily stressors—in adolescents aged 12 to 17 with high trait negative affectivity. The randomized controlled trial included 111 youth who were assigned to either the mindfulness program or no intervention. Stressor-reactive negative affect decreased significantly (Cohen's d = .40), and this reduction correlated with improvements in internalizing symptoms. However, the intervention did not affect stressor-independent negative affect or overall momentary negative affect, suggesting its benefits are specific to emotional reactions to stressors.
Journal of consulting and clinical psychology
August 1, 2024
Simon B Goldberg, Daniel M Bolt, Cortland J Dahl et al.
5 citations
Meditation app users who reported increased positive feelings and decreased negative feelings during practice showed greater reductions in psychological distress, both immediately after the program and three months later. In a randomized trial with 243 distressed public school employees, most of whom had clinically elevated depression or anxiety, negative affect during meditation declined over time while positive affect remained stable. Changes in positive affect predicted later distress more strongly than changes in negative affect. The findings challenge the common mindfulness emphasis on nonjudgmental awareness regardless of emotional tone, suggesting that the affective quality of meditation experience matters for outcomes and could guide personalized intervention.
Journal of consulting and clinical psychology
June 1, 2025
Andreas Voldstad, Ananda Zeas-Sigüenza, Anton Skolzkov et al.
2 citations
Mindfulness interventions that train nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experience have a consistent but small effect on romantic relationship satisfaction. A meta-analysis of 28 randomized controlled trials with 6,097 participants found a significant medium effect initially, but this was driven by extreme outliers. After removing those outliers, the effect was small and consistent. Effects were moderated by intervention length, baseline satisfaction, and risk of bias. The certainty of the evidence is very low due to inconsistency, imprecision, risk of bias, and suspicion of publication bias. The findings point to the need for better program theory and rigorous methodology.