Mindfulness-based intervention in perspective

The escalating interest in mindfulness-based intervention in regular psychological care calls for critical reflection. This paper comments on the paper of Remco Havermans 'Mindfulness meditation in mental health care: too much, too often and too early', stating that "the widespread belief that mindfulness meditation has been proven to be beneficial is completely unwarranted considering the status quo of mindfulness research". In this paper, we describe how mindfulness can be defined and we address issues and challenges regarding its measurement. Moreover, the empirical evidence for the positive effects of mindfulness-based intervention and the mechanisms through which the intervention is believed to work is reviewed. Current reviews and meta-analytical studies indicate that mindfulness-based intervention is effective in decreasing psychological symptoms, with some evidence that the intervention is equally effective as other interventions such as relaxation exercises and cognitive behavioral interventions. There is promising yet scarce evidence on the underlying mechanisms, suggesting that mindfulness-based intervention indeed teaches people to be more mindful and to use less avoidant strategies to manage difficult experiences. The current state and developments in research on mindfulness bear a resemblance to research on cognitive behavioral therapy, of which the mechanisms and active components are also still not proven. We conclude that there is sufficient evidence for the enthusiasm on clinical applications of mindfulness in health care. Yet this does not imply that it should be applied in all circumstances, overlooking other evidence-based treatments. Therefore, more research is needed to reach a better insight into for whom mindfulness-based intervention is most likely to work, how it works, and the active components of the intervention.