The role of mindfulness in lifetime history of depression: A study in Portuguese pregnant women

Abstract

Introduction

Despite the empirical support for the effects of mindfulness based interventions for recurrent depression (Velden et al., 2015), the literature on the relation between Mindfulness and Lifetime History of Depression/LTHD are scarce.

Objective

To compare Mindfulness levels between women with vs. without LTHD and to analyze if mindfulness dimensions are significant predictors of LTHD.

Methods

One hundred and twenty-seven pregnant women (mean age: 32.56 ± 4.785 years) in their second trimester of pregnancy (17.34 ± 4.790 weeks of gestation) completed: Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire-10 (FMQ10; Azevedo et at. 2015) assessing the dimensions non-judgement of inner experience/NJ, ACt with awareness/AA and observe and describe/OD; a new self-report questionnaire developed to evaluate the presence of LTHD, with several “Yes/No” questions, based on DSM-5 criteria for depression.

Results

Ninety-seven (23.0%) women had LTHD. Bisserial Spearmen correlations between LTHD and FMQ scores were significant, negative and moderate (> .30, P < .01); only OD did not significantly correlated with LTHD. Independent sample T-test revealed that women with vs. without LTHD had significantly higher levels of total FMQ-10, NJ and AA (all P < .001). Logistic regression analysis showed that the model containing FMQ-10 explained 12.7–18.8% of the LTHD variance and correctly classified 77.9%; the OR was of 1.19 (95% CI .801–.886; Wald = 44.504; P < .001). The model composed by NJ and AA explained 15.5–23% and correctly classified 76.5%. NJ OR was of 1.23 (CI .734–.884; Wald = 20.806; P < .001) and AA OR was of 1.41 (CI .708–.903; Wald = 13.004; P < .001).

Conclusions

Our research discloses that less mindfulness abilities enhances the probability of having lifetime history of depression.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.