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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2014 Jul 2;9(7):e100022.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100022. eCollection 2014.

Trait mindfulness as a limiting factor for residual depressive symptoms: an explorative study using quantile regression

Sholto Radford  1 , Catrin Eames  1 , Kate Brennan  2 , Gwladys Lambert  3 , Catherine Crane  2 , J Mark G Williams  2 , Danielle S Duggan  2 , Thorsten Barnhofer  2
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Trait mindfulness as a limiting factor for residual depressive symptoms: an explorative study using quantile regression

Sholto Radford et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Mindfulness has been suggested to be an important protective factor for emotional health. However, this effect might vary with regard to context. This study applied a novel statistical approach, quantile regression, in order to investigate the relation between trait mindfulness and residual depressive symptoms in individuals with a history of recurrent depression, while taking into account symptom severity and number of episodes as contextual factors. Rather than fitting to a single indicator of central tendency, quantile regression allows exploration of relations across the entire range of the response variable. Analysis of self-report data from 274 participants with a history of three or more previous episodes of depression showed that relatively higher levels of mindfulness were associated with relatively lower levels of residual depressive symptoms. This relationship was most pronounced near the upper end of the response distribution and moderated by the number of previous episodes of depression at the higher quantiles. The findings suggest that with lower levels of mindfulness, residual symptoms are less constrained and more likely to be influenced by other factors. Further, the limiting effect of mindfulness on residual symptoms is most salient in those with higher numbers of episodes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Quantile regression of BDI as a function of FFMQ.
(1A) Scatter plot with model predictions at the different quantiles (from top to bottom 0.9,0.8,0.7,0.6,0.5,0.4,0.3,0.2,0.1.). Grey shaded areas with dotted dividing lines represent symptom severity categories from BDI cut-off. (1B) Slope coefficient estimates at the different quantiles and their confidence intervals. Grey Band represents 90% confidence interval around the slope estimation.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Quantile regression of BDI as a function of FFMQ for subsamples categorised based on number of previous Major Depressive Episodes.
Lines represent the slope estimation for the 0.85 and 0.9 quantiles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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