Jesús Montero-Marín
Miguel Servet Senior Researcher at the Teaching, Research and Innovation Unit of the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, member of the Department of Psychiatry at Warneford Hospital-University of Oxford (UK) and member of Spain's Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP)
The study published in The Lancet Psychiatry represents a major advance in the treatment of resistant depression. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) showed higher effectiveness compared to treatment as usual, even in patients who had not remitted after previous intensive interventions. The study methodology is robust, with a randomised, controlled design and 34-week follow-up, which supports the robustness of its conclusions.
This work provides conclusive evidence that MBCT can be an effective and cost-effective second-line treatment option in structured clinical settings. Although direct extrapolation to other health systems, such as the Spanish one, should be done with caution and requires further research, the model is scalable and compatible with primary mental health care. Its implementation could lead to a substantial improvement in the continuity of care for cases of difficult-to-treat depression.