Mindfulness and Rumination

Does Mindfulness Training Lead to Reductions in the Ruminative Thinking Associated With Depression?

Deyo, Mary PsyD
Wilson, Kimberly A. PhD
Ong, Jason PhD
Koopman, Cheryl PhD

¹Pacific Graduate School of Psychology-Stanford Consortium, Palo Alto, CA
²Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences, Stanford University, CA
³Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL

^#Corresponding Author. Address: 405 Broadway Street, Redwood City, CA 94063 e-mail: [email protected]

Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing 5(5):p 265-271, September 2009.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 1990) training on a self-selected adult community sample in the areas of mindfulness, rumination, depressive symptomatology and overall well-being. Targeting rumination was considered particularly important because a tendency toward rumination in nondepressed populations has been found to be predictive of subsequent onset of depression. As hypothesized, completers of the MBSR class showed increases in mindfulness and overall wellbeing, and decreases in rumination and symptoms of depression. Limitations of the study are discussed, as are the implications of these findings.