Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Therapies in Reducing Symptoms of Depression: A Meta-Analysis
Abstract
Mindfulness-based therapies are a recent development within the cognitive-behavioural tradition and an important element of the third wave cognitive behavioural therapy models. A number of these therapies could be considered to have mindfulness as a major component of the therapy. There has been a considerable growth of interest in these therapies with an accompanying increase in their evidence base. While a number of reviews have been conducted, these therapies were not comprehensively appraised. The most prominent of these therapies, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, was developed to reduce relapse in recurrent depression. We conducted a meta-analysis which looked at therapies considered to have mindfulness as a major component. We investigated whether this group of therapies was effective in reducing current depressive symptomatology as measured by the Beck depression inventory (BDI). A total of 11 studies were included in the analysis. We found a significant mean reduction score in current depressive symptomatology, as measured by the BDI, of 8.73 points (95% confidence interval = 6.61, 10.86). We found evidence for the effectiveness of these major-component therapies in reducing levels of active depression. The robustness of these findings is discussed alongside the implications for research and practice within the context of the current literature.
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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].”
Mindfulness has been shown to improve mental health outcomes for a variety of populations, including those facing systemic stigma.
“Research shows that mindfulness, the process of paying attention with awareness and attentiveness to the immediate experience in a nonjudgmental way,12,13 improves mental health outcomes for a variety of populations, including those facing systemic stigma.14–20”
From Mindfulness, Mental Health, and Violence Exposure Among Transgender Female Sex Workers Living with HIV in the Dominican Republic. (2026) · cites this paper as [18]
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Mindful Interpersonal Listening
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Effect of Mindfulness Training Program on Promoting Mental Well-being Among Emergency Nurses
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“41 It can be stated that although these two treatments, as third-wave behavioral therapy treatments, have many commonalities, 42 each of them was able to reduce the severity of the patients’ symptoms by their somewhat different mechanisms of action.”
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Yarwood, B., Angelakis, I., & Taylor, R. (2025) · The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist · doi:10.1017/s1754470x25000091 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“There is much research supporting the efficacy of mindfulness in the treatment of depression (Hofmann et al ., 2010; McCarney et al ., 2012); however, both therapy recipients and therapists in our study did not reach a consensus on its importance.”
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Recommendations for conducting mindfulness based cognitive therapy trials
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Yoga as an Ancillary Treatment to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depression
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“Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) constitute an interesting alternative, as their efficacy on depressive symptomatology—and other symptoms including pain—has been tested with positive outcomes in several studies (Hedman-Lagerlöf1 et al., 2018; Hilton et al., 2017; McCarney et al., 2012).”
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A tailored online mindfulness intervention for junior doctors: a mixed-methods study
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Dynamic and Static Models of Body-Mind Approaches from Neurobiological Perspectives
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Mindfulness: from Adults to Children
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Using Mindfulness to Explore Worldview Perspective and Enhance Intercultural Development
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“It is a kind of focused awareness that is conscious and directed and can raise the level of awareness regarding all mental events or present states (11).”
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“All exercises of this treatment are designed to increase attention to the body [22].”
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Mindfulness: Future Pathways and Cross-Fertilizations through Cultural Psychology
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“Advancing the theoretical underpinnings of mindfulness is especially critical, given the numerous empirical studies and projects investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness-based treatments and therapies (McCarney et al., 2012; Tickell et al., 2020).”
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“Indeed, extensive meta-analyses have demonstrated the beneficial impact of mindfulness on psychopathology, particularly depression (Chi et al., 2018; McCarney et al., 2012; Reangsing et al., 2021).”
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- Authors
- McCarney, R. W., Schulz, J., & Grey, A. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Hertfordshire (GB)
- Corresponding author
- McCarney, Robert William
- Venue
- European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-09
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 279-299
- ISSN
- 1364-2537 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-5901
- OpenAlex
- W2166864562
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 0.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling (publishedVersion)
- University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- mindfulness-based interventions, depression, depressive symptoms, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, relapse prevention, Beck Depression Inventory, treatment effectiveness
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