Depression is often described as a fog that will not lift. Researchers have found that two forms of therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, can genuinely help people find a way through it.
CBT works by helping a person notice and examine the unhelpful thought patterns feeding depression, then test whether those patterns hold up. Over time the habitual thinking begins to change.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy goes a step further by combining those skills with mindfulness, which is the practice of paying attention to what is happening inside you at the moment, without judging it. Research shows this combination is particularly useful for people whose depression keeps returning, because it helps prevent future episodes rather than only treating the current one.
The practical consequence is that depression does not have to be endured by force of will. Structured, evidence-based approaches exist that teach new mental habits, and those habits hold.
If you or someone you care about is struggling with depression, effective help is available, and speaking with a psychologist is a good first step.
What this paper actually is
This piece by Lee and Cho is a review article rather than a single controlled experiment, and the distinction matters. Rather than testing a treatment on a specific group and reporting numbers, a review draws together existing evidence and evaluates the overall picture. There is no particular sample size or effect size to report here, since the abstract gives none and none should be invented. What it provides is a summary of where the field currently stands on CBT and mindfulness-based treatments for depression.
The family of therapies involved
Cognitive behavioural therapy targets the link between thoughts, feelings and behaviours, teaching people to identify and adjust the unhelpful thinking patterns that maintain low mood. Around that core idea several related therapies have grown, all sharing an ingredient called mindfulness: paying deliberate, non-judgemental attention to what is happening in your mind and body now.
Lee and Cho mention several. Dialectical behavioural therapy blends CBT with acceptance-based skills and was originally developed for intense emotional dysregulation. Acceptance and commitment therapy focuses on accepting difficult internal experiences while continuing to act in line with one's values. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a structured meditation program originally designed for stress and chronic pain. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy combines CBT techniques with mindfulness meditation specifically for depression.
What Lee and Cho highlight
The review notes that evidence for the role of CBT in treating depression has grown steadily. It gives particular attention to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, stating that its evidence base is strengthening for repetitive depressive disorder, meaning depression that tends to recur after a person has recovered from an episode. Clinical guidelines increasingly recommend it as a way to help prevent relapse rather than only to treat symptoms during an active episode.
The authors also point to something less often discussed. Mindfulness may work through more than the individual practising it alone. They suggest mindful awareness can improve the therapeutic relationship, meaning the working connection and trust between a patient and their therapist. Where both people bring a more open, non-judgemental awareness of their internal experience into the room, that relationship may itself become part of what helps someone recover.
Why this matters, and its limits
The practical message is twofold. Mindfulness-based approaches appear useful not only for easing current depressive symptoms but for reducing the chance of depression returning, and the quality of the therapeutic relationship may be a meaningful ingredient in recovery rather than a backdrop to it. Because this is a review rather than a study with new data, it is best treated as a synthesis of the field's direction. It shows where evidence is accumulating rather than establishing the exact size or certainty of any effect.
If the fog of depression feels familiar, structured and evidence-informed treatments exist, and speaking with a psychologist or GP is a worthwhile step.