The New Psychology of Depression

In this final episode Professor Mark Williams and Danny Penman discuss how imaging studies show that Mindfulness may have numerous profoundly positive effects on the brain.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is especially good for people who have suffered the most debilitating forms of depression. The evidence for its effectiveness is overwhelming and continues to grow.

Mindfulness therapy is an extremely effective treatment preventing relapse in depression. But what does it entail and how does it work?

Depression tends to return even if it has been successfully treated. Scientists now understand why this happens and have developed therapies that reduce the risks of relapse and help lift the burden of depression should it return.

Doctors and psychiatrists once believed that patterns of thinking played little or no role in depression, but this is now known to be wrong. Professor Williams and Dr Danny Penman discuss how the treatment of depression has evolved in recent years.

Depression is expected to impose the second biggest health burden globally by 2020; greater even than heart disease, arthritis and many forms of cancer. Professor Mark Williams and Dr Danny Penman discuss the driving forces behind this startling trend.