What's the best way to overcome depression? Antidepressant drugs, or Buddhist meditation?
A new trial has examined this question: Segal et al. The short answer is that 8 weeks of mindfulness mediation training was just as good as prolonged antidepressant treatment over 18 months. But like all clinical trials, there are some catches.
Right mindfulness, samm?-sati, is the 7th step on the Buddha's Nobel Eightfold Path of enlightenment. In its modern therapeutic form, however, it's a secular practice: you don't have to be a Buddhist to meditate here (but it presumably helps).
Mindfulness meditation is also branded nowadays as mindfulness-based cognitive behavioural therapy (MCBT), although how much it has in common with regular CBT is debatable. The technique is derived from the Buddhist tradition.
The essence of mindfulness is deceptively simple: you try to become a detached observer of your own feelings and thoughts. Rather than just getting angry, you ...
