One of the central features of depression is a negative bias. The low mood and sense of hopelessness characteristic of depression are said to be exacerbated, perpetuated and intensified by negative, self-devaluative rumination. Rumination can be defined as passively focusing attention on a negative circumstance or condition, and repeatedly thinking about its causes, meanings, and consequences.³ Individuals with a strong tendency toward rumination typically have inflexible, persistent thought patterns,⁴ and are more likely to focus on a single idea or event, especially if it is interpreted as a personal failure or deficiency. Instead of better understanding the situation through intense thought, rumination tends only to intensify depressive symptoms.⁴ One of the major characteristics of depression is the projection of minor faults into proof of total worthlessness.² For example, a depressed person may have a negative bias—“I fail in everything I do.” If such an individual does not believe they have succeeded at a test or challenge of some sort, they may continue to dwell on the failure. As a result, their mood is likely to worsen long after the event, thus reinforcing the negative bias. Rumination is an outgrowth of a negative bias that is applied to the interpretation of both internal and external environments.¹ Indeed, according to Aaron T. Beck, developer of the Beck Depression Inventory (the gold standard of depression testing), rumination is not only strongly associated with the development and maintenance of depressive disorders, but also significantly connected to the likelihood of relapse.²

By contrast, the mindset encouraged by meditation, particularly mindfulness-based meditation, is to “accept and move on.” In other words, instead of brooding over a particular intrusive (or negative) thought or event, a meditation practitioner simply acknowledges its existence, accepts it, and lets it go.¹ The meditation-proficient individual is less likely to become overly attached to a particular thought, as meditation seems to improve attentional awareness and allocation.³ It is said that this strategy increases the flexibility of thought patterns, so interpretations of both the internal and external environment are less rigid.³ Unlike cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT: a fairly standard approach to depression), meditation aims to change the thought processes rather than the thought content.³ Moreover, the thoughts themselves are re-interpreted as “mental events” rather than necessarily reflecting an objective truth.¹ This, in turn, increases self-acceptance.¹

A recent study was performed investigating whether a mindfulness-based meditation program could have positive effects on people with lifetime mood disorders.³ The 34 participants were recruited from two sources: Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) and the Department of Psychiatry at University of California San Diego (UCSD). The “treated” sample was enrolled in an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (meditation) program, based on the mindfulness meditation practice5 described by Jon Kabat-Zinn. The practice is said to teach individuals to pay attention “on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”⁵ The eight-week course used in this study consisted of weekly two-hour classes, one half-day instruction session, and daily meditation “homework” of 30 to 45 minutes.³

At the end of the eight weeks, a number of significant changes in the “treated” sample were found. Those changes were four-fold: first, an average 30% reduction in depression symptoms, as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); second, an 11% reduction in need for social approval, as measured by the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS); third, a 14% reduction in “brooding” and a 12% reduction in rumination, as measured by the Response-Style Questionnaire (RSQ); and fourth, an 11% reduction in trait anxiety, as measured by the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).³ There was no significant change in state anxiety³—which is related to a response to specific, external stimuli; as opposed to trait anxiety, which is related to a more enduring, general response-style in reacting to the environment. This last finding suggests that mindfulness meditation increases flexibility and brings about other deeper changes which lie beyond of the context of the scientific study in question.

The statistically significant reduction in rumination is of particular interest. A statistical analysis revealed that the changes in affective symptoms (i.e., “low mood”) and the need for approval do not account for the change in rumination scores, but the reverse appears to be true.3 In other words, it appears that changes in mood do not necessarily lead to changes in rumination, but rumination may cause positive changes in mood and attitude.³ In this way, it appears that addressing rumination is one of the primary mechanisms behind the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation in treating depression patients. When comparing the “treated” sample and wait-list controls, the difference in average change of RSQ-rumination scores remained statistically significant. Indeed, the difference was significant even when controlling for changes in depression and anxiety symptoms.³

Similar results were found in another study, wherein relapse was significantly reduced in recovered depression patients after taking an eight-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program.⁶ Mindfulness meditation seems to be effective in reducing depression symptoms, particularly rumination and negative emotions. It also appears to provide a more flexible, conscious interpretation-and-reaction style to environmental stressors. Individuals who practice mindfulness meditation seem to disengage the auto-pilot, as it were, learning to use a less habitual pattern of reacting to thoughts and feelings.³ Further study utilizing larger, more varied sample sizes and a longer follow-up period would be of great value.

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