Mindfulness training accelerates anxiety and depression relief via enhanced psychological resilience

doi:10.5498/wjp.117862

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World Journal of Psychiatry

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2220-3206

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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

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Randomized Controlled Trial

Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Psychiatry. Jul 19, 2026; 16(7): 117862
Published online Jul 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.117862

Mindfulness training accelerates anxiety and depression relief via enhanced psychological resilience

Juan Wang, Xian-Hui Sun, Chao Shi, Lu-Yao Ji, Ling Zhu

Ling Zhu, Lu-Yao Ji, Chao Shi, Juan Wang, Department of Medical Psychology, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital Seventh Medical Center, Beijing 100700, China

Xian-Hui Sun, Department of Security Assurance, The 96754^th Unit of the People’s Liberation Army of China, Beijing 100700, China

Co-first authors: Ling Zhu and Lu-Yao Ji.

Author contributions: Zhu L and Ji LY have played important roles in research design as co-first authors; Zhu L, Ji LY, Shi C, and Sun XH contributed to research design, data collection, data analysis, and paper writing; Wang J was responsible for research design, funding application, data analysis, reviewing and editing, communication coordination, ethical review, copyright and licensing, and follow-up; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.

AI contribution statement: We confirm that no AI tools were used in the creation of scientific content, research design, data analysis, result interpretation, or chart generation. The use of AI may have been due to the application of DeepL for language polishing and translation of some non-core content. The authors assume full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and scientific nature of the work.

Institutional review board statement: The research was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital Seventh Medical Center, No. S2025-104-01.

Clinical trial registration statement: This study has not yet been registered with clinical trials.

Informed consent statement: All participants provided informed consent.

Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.

CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.

Data sharing statement: No other data available.

Corresponding author: Juan Wang, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Medical Psychology, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital Seventh Medical Center, No. 5 South Gate Warehouse, Dongsi Liutiao, Dongsi Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100700, China. 15010571396@163.com

Received: January 20, 2026
Revised: February 11, 2026
Accepted: March 25, 2026
Published online: July 19, 2026
Processing time: 157 Days and 1.6 Hours

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Anxiety and depression are prevalent and often co-occurring mental health disorders. While mindfulness training has shown efficacy in reducing symptoms, the underlying mechanisms, particularly the role of psychological resilience, remain underexplored. This study investigates whether mindfulness training alleviates anxiety and depression and hypothesizes that psychological resilience mediates this relationship.

AIM

To test whether mindfulness training eases anxiety and depression and whether resilience acts as a mediator.

METHODS

In an 8 weeks study, 133 patients with anxiety/depression symptoms were randomly divided into a control group (65 cases) and an observation group (68 cases). The observation group received structured mindfulness training alongside usual care. Pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments of anxiety, depression, mindfulness, and resilience were performed using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the mediating role of psychological resilience was also examined.

RESULTS

At baseline the groups did not differ on gender, age, illness duration or employment status (P > 0.05). Post-intervention, the observation group showed significantly greater improvement than the control group, with lower Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (20.88 ± 2.52 vs 25.95 ± 2.61) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores (21.24 ± 1.65 vs 26.37 ± 1.94), and higher Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (125.37 ± 12.72 vs 112.14 ± 12.05) and 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale scores (34.53 ± 2.87 vs 28.31 ± 4.13) (P < 0.001). Bootstrapped mediation analysis (5000 samples) indicated that psychological resilience significantly mediated the intervention’s benefits, accounting for 9.89% of anxiety reduction (indirect effect = -0.498, 95%CI: -1.045 to -0.010) and 18.97% of depression reduction (indirect effect = -1.002, 95%CI: -1.570 to -0.327).

CONCLUSION

Mindfulness therapy lessens anxiety and depression both on its own and by boosting resilience, offering a dual pathway that makes it a valuable add-on treatment for these disorders.

Keywords: Mindfulness training; Psychological resilience; Mediating effect; Anxiety and depression disorders; Clinical application

Core Tip: This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that mindfulness training not only directly alleviates symptoms of anxiety and depression, but also enhances patients’ psychological resilience, which in turn partially mediates symptom reduction. The findings reveal a dual-pathway mechanism, offering a clinically feasible and culturally adapted intervention model to accelerate recovery.