Book Review: Mood Disorders: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression

It begins with a brief description of psychotherapy’s role in the prophylaxis of future depressive episodes. Although CBT and interpersonal therapy have been shown to be efficacious in treating depression, little research has been undertaken on preventing the development of new episodes in patients who have already experienced one depressive episode. This book devotes a full chapter to an attempt to develop a cognitive therapy variant that will address maintenance in patients who have recovered from an episode of depression. Drawing on previous studies, the authors indicate that, after cognitive therapy, the relapse rate is reduced to 20% to 25%. They argue that it would be advantageous to reduce the relapse rate even further. More important, finding what is protective in CBT might lead to a separate treatment for the prevention of relapse. As important, this new treatment could be applied to patients who have recovered from depression but have never received cognitive therapy.