Effects of a Self-Guided Online Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Program (Mind-OP) in Reducing Negative Automatic Thoughts About Self: Randomized Active Controlled Trial

ObjectivesNegative automatic thoughts about self (NATS) are a central feature of depression, and have been linked cross-sectionally and prospectively with its symptoms. This suggests negative self-referent thoughts are both a by-product and accelerant of depression. Accordingly, reducing NATS is worthwhile given its downstream effects on depression. Very few trials have examined the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in remediating this important outcome. Even fewer still have examined the efficacy of low-intensity, online, and scalable interventions in reductions of NATS. We conducted a large randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of a brief (4-week), self-guided, online mindfulness and self-compassion intervention (Mind-OP) in reducing the frequency and severity of NATS.MethodsWe recruited general population participants using a popular crowdsourcing website (CloudResearch) and randomized them to the Mind-OP intervention condition (n = 221) or the Active Control condition (n = 221), and examined pre- to post-change in their NATS on the Cognitive Triad Inventory - Self Subscale.ResultsBoth intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol mixed-linear model (MLM) analyses demonstrated that participants randomized to the Mind-OP condition reported significantly greater reductions in NATS, with ITT analyses demonstrating small-medium effects (Cohen's d = 0.38) compared to those randomized to the active control condition at post-treatment.ConclusionsResults suggest brief, self-guided mindfulness-focused interventions demonstrate promising effects in reducing NATS, which has important implications given their downstream consequences.PreregistrationThe hypotheses of the current study were not preregistered. The trial on whose data the current study builds was preregistered on AsPredicted (#18806) on 2019-01-22.