Staying Well After Depression: Trial Design and Protocol

This trial will compare mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with both cognitive psycho-education & treatment as usual. It will test whether the mindfulness therapy reduces the risk of relapse in recurrently depressed patients & the incidence of suicidal symptoms in those with a history of suicidality who do relapse. The trial will allocate participants at random to one of the 3 conditions, stratified by presence of suicide ideation or behaviour & current antidepressant use. Estimates will be made of the effects on rates of relapse & suicidal symptoms over 12 months following treatment. Clinical status will be assessed immediately after treatment, & 3, 6, 9, & 12 months thereafter. (38 refs.) JA