Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2016 Nov 9. [Epub ahead of print]

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depressed individuals improves suppression of irrelevant mental-sets.

Greenberg J1, Shapero BG2, Mischoulon D2, Lazar SW3.

• 1Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 120 2nd Ave, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA. jgreenberg5@mgh.harvard.edu.
• 2Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1 Bowdoin Square, 6th Floor, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
• 3Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 120 2nd Ave, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.

Abstract

An impaired ability to suppress currently irrelevant mental-sets is a key cognitive deficit in depression. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was specifically designed to help depressed individuals avoid getting caught in such irrelevant mental-sets.

In the current study, a group assigned to MBCT plus treatment-as-usual (n = 22) exhibited significantly lower depression scores and greater improvements in irrelevant mental-set suppression compared to a wait-list plus treatment-as-usual (n = 18) group.

Improvements in mental-set-suppression were associated with improvements in depression scores.

Results provide the first evidence that MBCT can improve suppression of irrelevant mental-sets and that such improvements are associated with depressive alleviation.

KEYWORDS:

Competitor rule suppression; Depression; Mental-set; Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy

PMID:

27830339