CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 44Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsReligion, Spirituality, and PsychologyPsychotherapy Techniques and Applications

The Effect of Four Immeasurables Meditations on Depressive Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Lv, Jing, Liu, Qiuling, Zeng, Xianglong, Oei, Tian P.S., Liu, Yidan, Xu, Kexin, Sun, Wenxiang, Hou, Hanchao +1 more·2020·Clinical Psychology Review
DOI 10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101814
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The Four Immeasurables Meditations (FIM) intervention have been shown as a promising intervention for reducing depressive symptoms. The current study is a systematic review of FIM intervention effects on depressive symptoms. Among 192 empirical research articles on FIM published before May 2019, 40 independent trials from 35 records measured depressive symptoms. The meta-analysis included 21 randomized controlled trials (RCT; n = 1468) and 16 uncontrolled trials (n = 376). The results supported overall effectiveness of FIM on depressive symptoms (d = 0.38 for RCT and d = 0.87 for uncontrolled trials). Moderator analysis indicated the effects differed across protocols, and effects were smaller in RCT using active control groups. No significant differences were observed for participant type, measures, intervention length, or intervention components. Individual studies found no direct association between meditation practice time and effects, and mindfulness and self-compassion were widely supported as mechanisms of change. Current evidence supports FIM as an effective intervention for reducing depressive symptoms, but additional studies with more rigorous designs using active control groups are needed. Further investigation should be encouraged regarding specific protocols and participants, the contribution of meditation practice, and other mechanisms such as positive emotions.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101814

Cites

64 of 64 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Mindfulness techniques can reduce symptoms of both anxiety and depression that are related to somatic symptoms.

    “Studies concerning mindfulness-based interventions, for instance, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) [24] or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) [25], have brought evidence that mindfulness techniques can reduce symptoms of both anxiety [26,27] and depression [28,29] that are related to somatic symptoms [30] such as cardiovascular disease [31] or cancer [32].”

    From Examining the associations between psychological flexibility, mindfulness, psychosomatic functioning, and anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic: A path analysis (2020) · cites this paper as [28]

  • Kindness-based meditation has a moderate effect in reducing depressive symptoms, anxiety and stress, and increases compassion, self-compassion, and positive emotions of practitioners, compared to no intervention.

    “4 meta-analyses of 22, 21, 19, and 10 randomised controlled trials show that in comparison to no intervention, kindness-based meditation has a moderate effect in reducing depressive symptoms, anxiety and stress, and increases compassion and self-compassion, and positive emotions of kindness-practitioners 22 – 25 .”

    From Kindness as a public health action (2025) · cites this paper as [23]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Lv, J., Liu, Q., Zeng, X., Oei, T. P. S., Liu, Y., Xu, K., Sun, W., Hou, H., & Liu, J.
Affiliations
  • East China Normal University (CN)
  • Beijing Normal University (CN)
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • Capital Medical University (CN)
Corresponding author
Zeng, Xianglong
ORCID
Venue
Clinical Psychology Review
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-03
Volume
76
Pages
101814
ISSN
0272-7358 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101814
OpenAlex
W2998813575
Cited by
44
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3
FWCI
0.53
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Clinical Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Keywords
depressive symptoms, compassion meditation, mindfulness, self-compassion, mechanisms of change, active control groups, positive emotions
MeSH terms
Depression, Empathy, Humans, Meditation, Mindfulness

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review