Mindfulness: beware the hype | Dean Burnett

It’s a useful tool, but an army of therapists and counsellors would be needed for mindfulness to have the reach and effectiveness of drug-based interventions. Don’t throw away the antidepressants just yet

A new study reports that mindfulness can be as effective as pills for treating recurrent depression. This is nice to hear. But is it believable? Is mindfulness really as potent as strong pharmaceuticals?

You hear a lot about mindfulness these days. It seems to have spawned an industry based around people trumpeting its benefits in various unlikely areas of modern life, such as weight loss, parenting, business leadership, horticulture (probably) and so on. This has also prompted a backlash, with many describing the popularity of mindfulness as a “fad”.

Related: Modern tribes: the student of mindfulness

There is no specific definition of mindfulness that is agreed on 100% by scientists and practitioners

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