Effect of mindfulness on depression

To this end, this paper critiques some of the studies on mindfulness and depression while examining how mindfulness results in positive depression outcomes. Effect of mindfulness on depression Keng, Smoki, and Robins (2011) sought to explore the effects of mindfulness on psychological health. They did this by reviewing the findings of empirical studies. The authors began by discussing about the mindfulness construct, the differences in the conceptualizations of mindfulness between the Westerners and the Buddhists. They then proceeded to review the empirical research on three areas. All the participants were enrolled in a mindfulness-based therapy for various conditions such as terminal illnesses like cancer and psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety disorder. The study found that mindfulness-based treatments are effectual in eliminating the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The outcomes of the treatment were robust and they led the authors to conclude that mindfulness interventions are effective in treating anxiety and depression-related disorders. The key limitation of the study is that it could have suffered from expectancy effect in which the scholars conduct the review expecting a particular outcome despite the fact that the scholars used a liberal selection criteria. Despite the limitation, the scholars collected a large sample, which led them into finding the strong correlation that exists between depression and mindfulness based interventions. However, it explores various elements of mindfulness, which makes it effective in treating patients suffering from depression. In so doing, it gives a solid reason why nurses should incorporate mindfulness-based interventions in patients suffering from depression.

Piet, Würtzen, and Zachariae (2012) conducted a study involving meta-analysis and a systematic review with the objective of evaluating the current evidence on how mindfulness-based therapeutic treatment affects the depression and anxiety symptoms in the patients and survivors of cancer. The method used involved the searching of studies from electronic databases and getting in touch with the researchers for further explanation of the findings of their studies. The scholar collected 22 independent studies whose participants totaled to 1,403. The patients were enrolled in mindfulness training that had 8 group training sessions, with a single session being done once in a week for two hours. The data analysis method used was the statistical method of multivariate analysis of covariance. The study results showed that the patients who were enrolled into the session showed improvement in depression.

Even though the study had effective findings, the study used a small sample size, which means that there could be challenges in applying the outcomes to the general population. The study also failed to examine key variables that may affect the findings of the study. Therefore, even though the study had findings similar to those of other studies with regards to mindfulness and depression, a larger sample should be used to have findings that can be generalized to a larger population. Lessons learned From the study, it is clear that mindfulness is associated with positive outcomes on depression. This implies that people with high scores on mindfulness are not likely to suffer from depression and anxiety disorders when faced with challenging situations.