Mindfulness – a sort of mental training that teaches the mind to spot negative thoughts and feelings and then have the skills to respond to them in a way that may prevent a depressive relapse. A new study from the University of Oxford, the largest ever analysis of research on the subject, has drawn the conclusion that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) does as much to help people with the depression as commonly prescribed anti-depressant drugs, without the side-effects.

The study, which was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry on April 27, found that people with depression who received MBCT were as much as 31 percent less likely to suffer a relapse during the next 60 weeks. Lead author of the paper Willem Kuyken said, “This new evidence for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy … is very heartening. While MBCT is not a panacea, it does clearly offer those with a substantial history of depression a new approach to learning skills to stay well in the long-term.”

MBCT can help people cope with their negative thoughts. Kuyken related the story of a woman in one of his classes to the Independent. He said the woman would start to have thoughts of being an inadequate mother who was going to mess up her children and lead them to suffering from depression as well. He said that after the training she was able to recognize this type of thinking as negative thoughts rather than facts, and learn to let them go through her mind without dwelling on them.

Mindfulness is inspired in part by Buddhist philosophy, and uses techniques such as breathing exercises, yoga and meditation. There are critics who claim the techniques can bring on panic attacks that lead to delusions, depression or paranoia. Psychologist Dr. Miguel Farias told the Guardian last year that, “mindfulness can have negative effects for some people, even if you’re doing it for only 20 minutes a day.”

The team plans to do more research, with a goal of getting recovery rates closer to 100 percent, and also to prevent the onset of depression, especially earlier in life.

Kuyken stressed that mindfulness training should be viewed as only one option for therapy, alongside drugs and other methods of treating depression.