An Effective Approach to Depressive Disorder

    No one can be happy and cheerful forever. So it's important they see a mental - health who can provide effective options for treatment when someone has clinical depression known as the state of feeling very sad, anxious and without hope. But there's also a condition known as subthreshold depression in which someone some symptoms of depressive disorder, but not enough for a clinical diagnosis.

    It's estimated that between 10% and 24% of the population has this kind of mild depression at some point in their lives. And for those people, a new study suggests that practicing thinking in silence may help improve their mood and reduce their risk of developing depression. The study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, yet another reason why deep thinking may be good for both physical and mental health.

    The study included 231 Chinese adults with subthreshold depression, meaning their between five and nine out of a total of 27 points on a standard depression . Half received mindfulness training two hours a week for eight weeks, while the other half continued to receive their usual medical care.

    During the mindfulness training, participants were instructed on setting short-and long-term goals; their activity and mood; planning out their activities; and body scanning. They were asked to practice them at home at least six days a week.

    These techniques combine traditional deep thinking with activation, a type of therapy that uses an "outside in" approach to help people change the way they act and aims to increase rewarding experiences in their lives. It has been shown to be effective for moderate to severe depression in other studies, and the researchers wanted to know if it would work as a measure as well.

    At the end of those eight weeks, the group that received mindfulness training reported a significant decrease in depression and symptoms compared to the group that did not. And no participants had developed clinical depression.