Can Mindfulness Cure Depression? Group Therapy Sessions Are Effective Treatment, Study Finds

Symptoms related to certain mental illnesses like anxiety, depression and stress-related disorders can be treated through “mindfulness group therapies.” Yet a new study, which was released Thursday, found group mindfulness therapy is just as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a favored treatment method for the aforementioned mental illnesses. But the popularity —and effectiveness — of mindfulness-based group therapy has been on the rise, also.

During mindfulness-based cognitive therapy sessions, patients are encouraged to be aware of their bodies, feelings and thoughts and are taught to focus on the present. They are also taught to be aware of triggers that might set off stress or a depressive episode, according to Everyday Health.

Read: What Causes Depression? Stress, Serotonin Gene Link Investigated

The finding was discovered during a study conducted by the Center for Primary Healthcare Research, a collaborative effort between Region Skåne and Sweden's Lund University.

More than 200 patients suffering from stress-related disorders, anxiety and depression were selected from 16 different healthcare facilities throughout southern Sweden to participate in the research. The controlled trial was eight weeks, during which two groups of patients received both treatments. Researchers assessed symptoms and the patients’ responses to both the mindfulness group therapy, as well as the individual sessions of CBT. There was no difference in the treatment effectiveness between the two groups of patients.

“Our new research shows that mindfulness group therapy has the equivalent effect as individual CBT for a wide range of psychiatric symptoms that are common among this patient group,” Professor Jan Sundquist, who led the research group in the study, said in a statement. “We have shown in a previous study that mindfulness group therapy is just as effective as individual CBT for the treatment of typical depression and anxiety symptoms; something we also observed in the new study.”

A study released by the University of Oxford in 2015 found that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy could also be just as helpful as the use of antidepressants when it came to depression relapse prevention.