Effects of mindfulness therapy on the perception and descriptions of daily experiences among depressed individuals

Abstract

The main goal of the study was to examine changes in daily functioning of depressed individuals undergoing Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). Participants who met criteria for clinical depression were randomly assigned to either a training group (N=26) or a control group (N=30, a delayed treatment control). They completed an online diary for 7 days before and after the 8-weeks during which the training group received MBCT. At the end of each day, using 7-point scales, participants described the important events that happened to them that day and rated each event in terms of stressfulness, positivity, and how mindful they were during the event. Descriptions of events were analysed with Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), a program that provided frequency counts of words in different categories. Multi-level analyses found that after mindfulness training, participants felt more mindful than they did at the pre-test, they perceived events as significantly more positive and less stressful, and they used significantly fewer negation and discrepancy words. There were no significant changes in the control condition for these measures. The results are discussed in terms of two conceptualizations of the treatment of depression – the decrease in cognitive distortions provided by Beck and the decrease in actual-ideal self-discrepancy proposed by Higgins.