Episode 15: Is mindfulness a panacea or overhyped and potentially problematic?
Some of the evidence is promising - but mindfulness is not risk free, and it may not suit everyone.
19 March 2019
By PsychCrunch
Mindfulness is everywhere these days, but is it really as beneficial as it's often made out to be?
Our presenter Ginny Smith hears from clinical psychologist Dr Catherine Wikholm (co-author of The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?); she visits the Cambridge Buddha Centre to meet people who have taken up mindfulness meditation; and she discusses some of the latest mindfulness research trials with Professor Barney Dunn, a clinical psychologist at Exeter University.
Some of the evidence is indeed promising, and mindfulness meditation could offer a cost-effective way to help many people with mental health problems. However, Ginny also discovers that many trials are ongoing, mindfulness is not risk free, and it may not suit everyone.
Some of the studies mentioned in this episode:
- Mechanisms of action in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in people with physical and/or psychological conditions: A systematic review.
- 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
- Mindfulness Training Increases Momentary Positive Emotions and Reward Experience in Adults Vulnerable to Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy compared with maintenance antidepressant treatment in the prevention of depressive relapse or recurrence (PREVENT): a randomised controlled trial
- The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) in Real-World Healthcare Services
- The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a mindfulness training programme in schools compared with normal school provision (MYRIAD): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial
- Unwanted effects: Is there a negative side of meditation? A multicentre survey
- The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?
Episode credits:
Presented and produced by Ginny Smith.
Mixing Jeff Knowler.
PsychCrunch theme music Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler.
Art work Tim Grimshaw.
