Rumination is an important mediator between MBCT and treatment resistant depression because its presence predicts maintenance of prolonged clinical depression. It is a cognitive  and distressing symptom that can be reduced through MBCT because MBCT teaches a detachment from thoughts, which helps prevent negative thoughts from escalating into rumination.

Mediators of the Relationship Between Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Treatment Resistant Depression: Rumination

- increase in perceptual sensitivity and improved vigilance in a sustained visual attention task
- increased activation in the attention network (prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate among other regions)
- less impulsiveness, tolerance to stressors, and heightened self-esteem
- increased response inhibition predicting adaptive socio-emotional functioning 
- reduced ruminative thinking and anxiety 
- increased empathy and self-compassion 
- reduced stress symptoms, helps in the process of positive reappraisal to deal with stress

Cognitive and Psychological Effects of Meditation Retreats

Metacognitive awareness is the acknowledgement that one's thoughts are only thoughts, and they may not be facts. When used as a definition of mindfulness, it is called mindful metacognition, and conceptualizes mindfulness as an information processing style.

Mindful Metacognition/Metacognitive Awareness

In the context of depression, rumination is defined as a repetitive and passive mental focus on one's depressive symptoms and the state of being depressed. This pattern of thought involves dwelling on the symptoms rather than actively engaging in problem-solving or distracting oneself from them.

Definition of Rumination in Depression

Rumination happens when a person spends a significant amount of time thinking and worrying about a problem. The thought that is ruminated feeds itself continuously, so the person becomes stuck in a constant cycle of worry that eventually distorts their perception of the reality of the situation.

Villanova University

University of Chicago

New Mexico Highlands University

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Negative mental factors are those that distort a person's reality in a way that makes them less calm and more imbalanced.

Negative Mental Factors

Causes of Mental Suffering

- Increased sense of calmness
- Increased self-compassion
- Increased psychological well-being
- Decreased stress
- Decreased rumination
- Decreased emotional reactivity
- Decreased mental suffering
- Emotion regulation skills

Emotional Goals and Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

Emotion regulation skills are developed through the promotion of metacognitive awareness as the individual disengages from cognitive actions, decreases rumination, and working memory capacity increases that allow for enhanced attentional deployment.

How Emotion Regulation is Developed Through Mindfulness Meditation

Cognitive theories propose that depression is initiated by negative thoughts, interpretations, self-assessments, and expectations. These frameworks are considered diathesis-stress models, suggesting that depression arises from an interaction between a 'cognitive vulnerability'—a predisposition to negative and maladaptive thinking—and the occurrence of stressful life events.

Cognitive Theories of Depression

Fabrizio, D. (ed.). (2009). Clinical handbook of mindfulness. Springer. 

Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness

Negative mental factors can lead a person to experience intense distress. For example, aversion can lead to envy and contempt, whereas attachment can lead to dependency.

The Impact of Negative Mental Factors on the Individual

For every negative mental factor, there is a corresponding positive mental factor that can dominate it. When a positive mental factor is present in a person's mind, the opposite negative factor cannot occupy their mind.

Relationship Between Positive and Negative Mental Factors

Rumination

There are three basic negative mental factors:

- Illusion/ignorance
- Attachment/desire
- Aversion/hostility

Examples of Negative Mental Factors

People who practice mindfulness meditation have shown decreased stress levels due to improved implementation of emotional regulation strategies and the ability to process emotions differently as they arise.

Mindfulness and Stress Reduction

People who practice mindfulness meditation to have shown to have an enhanced ability to not let emotionally upsetting stimuli affect them: they are able to direct their energy to other cognitive tasks instead.

Mindfulness and Emotional Reactivity

Research on psychological well-being in recent years has focused on the factors that constitute optimal levels of human flourishing and their relationship to physical health, work performance, social relationships, and a range of other outcomes. Mechanisms of self-regulation such as psychotherapy, positive psychology interventions, and contemplative practices have been studied in relation to changes in well-being.

Psychological Well-being

Near-death experiences (NDE) are intense events that immensely affect a person psychologically. Although many people have experienced a decreased fear of death after an NDE, there is still a mystery surrounding the extent to which psychological factors are linked with a decrease of anxiety about death. 

Mindfulness and Death 

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to lead to the development of skills that allow individuals to regulate their emotions effectively as they arise. 

Through fMRI and DTI, activity changes were shown in several regions, including: amygdala, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and adjacent prefrontal cortex. 
Decreased activity in the amygdala and insula, paired with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and adjacent prefrontal cortex, signifies both more stability in emotion regulation and better impulse control.

Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Emotion Regulation

Working memory capacity is a psychological characteristic that refers to an individual's ability to simultaneously hold and process multiple pieces of information in their mind. In cognitive psychology, this capacity can be quantified using systematic measurement procedures.

Working Memory Capacity

Attentional deployment is a type of emotional regulation strategy in which a person attempts to alter their emotional state by shifting their attention in a particular way as the situation arises. 

Attentional Deployment

Developed by psychiatrist Aaron Beck in the 1960s, this influential theory posits that individuals prone to depression possess depressive schemas, which are underlying mental frameworks that predispose them to negative thinking. These schemas, often formed during childhood due to adverse experiences, contain themes of loss, failure, and inadequacy. They can lie dormant for years until activated by stressful life events, at which point they trigger dysfunctional and pessimistic thoughts.

Beck's Cognitive Theory of Depression

The hopelessness theory of depression posits that a specific style of negative thinking can lead to a sense of hopelessness, which in turn triggers depression. Hopelessness is defined as the expectation that negative outcomes are inevitable or desired outcomes are unattainable, coupled with the belief that one is powerless to change the situation. According to the theory, this sense of hopelessness arises from a person's tendency to attribute negative life events to causes that are stable (unchangeable) and global (affecting all aspects of life). When individuals with this cognitive style face undesirable events, they are more likely to view them as having damaging implications for their future and self-worth, which fosters the hopelessness that is considered the primary cause of depression.

Hopelessness Theory of Depression

The rumination theory of depression proposes that an individual's thoughts about their own distressed moods, particularly their depressive symptoms, can heighten the risk and prolong the duration of depression. This theory, first described in the late 1980s, focuses on rumination as a key mechanism in the development of depression.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After