Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on cognitive avoidance, rumination and emotional regulation in depressed individuals

Introduction: Regarding the prevalence of depression and the necessity of effective treatments, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness on rumination, cognitive avoidance, and emotional regulation in depressed people. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this research consists of all the people who were referred to the psychology and counseling clinic of Mashhad University in 2021 and were diagnosed with depression through a clinical interview. The cases were selected using the convenient sampling method. They were randomly assigned into two mindfulness treatment and control groups. Research tools included Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Ruminative Response Scale (RRS), Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ), and Structured Clinical Interviews for Mental Disorders (SCID-5CV). The data were analyzed by aiding descriptive statistics, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and covariance analysis. Results: The findings reveal a significant difference in the mean scores of rumination (P 0.001), emotional regulation (P 0.001), and cognitive avoidance (P 0.001) between the experimental and control groups; this means that therapeutic intervention reduces the intensity of cognitive avoidance, emotionally dysregulation, and rumination in depressed people. Conclusion: Based on the results, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can be used to treat depression by reducing rumination and cognitive avoidance and improving emotional regulation.