The treatment of patients suffering from major depressive disorders is always hampered by the many cases of medication non-adherence on the part of patients. There exist many reasons behind medication non-adherence, including costs, depression, and lack of evidence of change in their depressive states. The adoption of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is considered as a remedy to medication non-adherence besides being regarded as a valid medical intervention compared to the use of antidepressants ( McManus, Surawy, Muse, Vazquez-Montes & Williams, 2012 ). MBCT offers better interventions that antidepressants that studies show that it has failed to address the continued cases of medical non-adherence.
Studies demonstrate that patients subjected to mindful based cognitive therapy have more control over their thought while undergoing therapy. It teaches patients how to understand their thought process after undergoing traumatic experiences; thus, they are more likely to control themselves when going down a negative path. Additionally, Patients who undergo MBCT have low-stress levels compared to those that use antidepressants to handle major depressive disorders. Finally, studies also offer evidence to conclude that MBCT makes patients have improved modes while dealing with depressive episodes. Applying MBCT interventions reduces chances for readmission that comes about owing to recurrences.
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MBCT applies cognitive therapy techniques blended with mindful meditation to undertake psychotherapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety behaviors. The goal of adopting MBCT is to help patients to deal with negative thoughts that are characteristic of depression. The use of antidepressants has proved ineffective for patients with major depressive disorders as they still lead to readmission instances besides causing patients to engage in harmful behaviors ( Weber, Jermann, Gex-Fabry , Nallet, Bondolfi & Aubry, 2010). It should be noted that patients who commit to MBCT must complete their therapy schedules for them to realize the anticipated outcome.
The targeted results for MBCT is to answer the question, “How the application of mindful based cognitive therapy can reduce the cases of hospital patients as well as readmissions by 90 percent in 6 months as opposed to using antidepressants for patients suffering from major depressive disorders.” Study evidence leads us to the conclusion that MBCT reduces instances of medical non-adherence as well as readmission cases for patients compared to antidepressants that further advance non-adherence of medication.
MBCT originated from a combination of traditional therapies with mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) introduced by Jon Kabat-Zin in the second half of the 20th century ( Gu, Strauss, Bond & Cavanagh, 2015). MBSR was developed by combining western medicine and psychology. According to the proponent of the intervention, it was intended to put in place mindfulness practices with the aim of making them have a different perspective when faced with depression, thus having less suffering. The intention of the intervention came true since patients responded in a positive way.
The evaluation of the outcome of the intervention is gathered by the rate of readmission in comparison with the other methods used to address major depressive disorders. The questions asked to the primary caregivers in the form of a questionnaire were focused on getting to establish the recovery of patients under their care during therapies ( Fjorback, Arendt , Ørnbøl, Fink, & Walach, 2011). The rates of readmissions are also an important matrix to consider when evaluating the success of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy compared to antidepressants. Questions such as “How comfortable do patients feel about MBCT compared to antidepressants?” was asked in the determination of its effectiveness.
To promote this program, ten patients that had been subjected to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy under the care of primary caregivers. The other ten patients subjected to antidepressants were selected for the purpose of fair comparisons. All patients committed to completing their medication schedules. Both groups were under the strict supervision of primary caregivers to ensure that they observed their medication schedules ( Fjorback, Arendt , Ørnbøl, Fink, & Walach, 2011). The test was established in a controlled environment to ensure that all the considerations remained constant for both interventions. After the test period, analysis and evaluation of the mental states of the patients after the exercise was conducted by professionals. Additionally, the patients underwent pre and post-treatment questionnaires done intermittently in the course of the treatment.
Among the problems faced in undertaking the evaluation were the reductant of the test subjects to respond to questionnaires as well as evaluation from medical specialists. It necessitated the offering of financial incentives to the participants of the test to make them engage fully. This also brought a shortcoming and skeptics on the results as it was anticipated that there was likely to be dishonesty ( Fjorback, Arendt , Ørnbøl, Fink, & Walach, 2011). The study demonstrated that patients subjected to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy showed improved states of mind compared to those that were subjected to antidepressants. Only one out of the ten test subjects showed signs of relapses in their depressive states compared to the five that were subjected to antidepressants.
There is a reason to further the studies in a more controlled setting to identify which kind of medical intervention was more time consuming compared to the other. As much as MBCT shows more positive results, it proved to take more time to realize the anticipated results compared to antidepressants that seemed to work faster ( Coelho, Canter & Ernst, 2013). However, it is considerable to note that MBCT therapy patients did not demonstrate symptoms of medication non-adherence compared to those that were subjected to antidepressants.
References
Coelho, H. F., Canter, P. H., & Ernst, E. (2013). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: evaluating current evidence and informing future research.
Fjorback, L. O., Arendt, M., Ørnbøl, E., Fink, P., & Walach, H. (2011). Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy–a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica , 124 (2), 102-119.
Gu, J., Strauss, C., Bond, R., & Cavanagh, K. (2015). How do mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of mediation studies. Clinical psychology review , 37 , 1-12.
McManus, F., Surawy, C., Muse, K., Vazquez-Montes, M., & Williams, J. M. G. (2012). A randomized clinical trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy versus unrestricted services for health anxiety (hypochondriasis). Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 80 (5), 817.
Weber, B., Jermann, F., Gex-Fabry, M., Nallet, A., Bondolfi, G., & Aubry, J. M. (2010). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for bipolar disorder: A feasibility trial. European Psychiatry , 25 (6), 334-337.
