Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces clinical symptoms, but do not change frontal alpha asymmetry in people with major depression disorder

Abstract

Objectives

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has demonstrated to be successful in the reduction of relapse rates in patients with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). Little is known if MBCT is effective for treating individuals with current MDD episode and about underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of symptoms reduction. The aim of the present study was to assess effects of MBCT on depressed individuals in terms of reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms and to evaluate if this therapeutic improvement would be reflected on neurophysiological level by shift in frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA).

Participants

We studied 20 individuals with current MDD.

Design

Participants were randomly assigned either to waiting list or 8-week MBCT. Before and after the treatment we have assessed depression, anxiety, and FAA in resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) – an indicator of approach vs. withdrawal-related response dispositions and a vulnerability factor of MDD.

Results

In line with previous findings, reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms, but no change in mean values of FAA in MBCT group was found.

Conclusions

These results provide a support for the beneficial effects of MBCT in current MDD treatment, however, they do not support the hypothesis on alpha asymmetry change as a neural correlate of MDD improvement.

Keywords:

• depression
• electrophysiology
• EEG
• mindfulness
• frontal alpha asymmetry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Implementation: periodogram functionfrom Matlab® Signal Processing toolbox

Additional information

Funding

Support for this research was provided by the National Science Center (grant no 2012/04/M/HS6/00/470) and by SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (DST grant no WP/2014/A/35) to Izabela Krejtz and by the University of Warsaw (BST grant no 0177700-41) to Paweł Holas. Mateusz Gola was supported by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education grant 1057/MOB/2013/0.