Growing up with abuse or neglect leaves traces that are invisible for a long time, until the day sadness, fatigue and loss of taste for life set in. In these adults with a damaged past, the depressive symptoms often resist traditional approaches. An American team tested another approach: training in mindfulness.
For over forty years, programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction have been used to reduce stress and blood pressure. In 2026, a randomized trial conducted by Eric Loucks, director of the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, and published in Health Psychologyevaluated a related protocol, Mindfulness-Based Blood Pressure Reduction (MB-BP). The official objective: to better control excessively high blood pressure, while looking at what was also changing on the
depression.
Mindfulness, blood pressure and depression: surprising results
The trial enrolled 201 adults with high blood pressure (at least 120/80 mmHg), mostly women around 60 years old. Of the participants, 101 were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program, while the remaining 100 were placed in a control group receiving enhanced usual care. This care included the use of home blood pressure monitors, access to medical services, and health educational resources. The researchers also collected information about the difficulties participants experienced during their childhood, particularly their exposure to abuse or neglect. All were followed for six months, with assessors who did not know their group measuring the evolution of their blood pressure, their health behaviors and their depressive symptoms on a standardized scale.
Overall result: At six months, the MB-BP group had an additional average decrease of 1.65 points on the depression scale compared to the control group, a modest but significant effect. The researchers mainly observed stronger improvements among people reporting strong
parental neglect in childhood than in those with little exposure, with a comparable but less pronounced tendency noted in cases of a history of childhood maltreatment. In other words, the adults most affected byearly adversity seemed to benefit the most from this mindfulness work applied to health.
Why a difficult childhood amplifies the effect of mindfulness
For Eric Loucks, professor of epidemiology, medicine and behavioral and social sciences at Brown University,
These figures are part of a broader observation on the lasting impact of childhood trauma. “Looking at ordinary people around the world, those who have been exposed to early adversity, such as abuse or neglect, tend to have poorer mental health and also poorer cardiovascular health“, indicated Eric Loucks. Measuring theabuse and the neglect parental intervention showed that MB-BP could actually alleviate part of this vulnerability.
“These results suggest that developing mindful self-regulation skills – such as self-awareness, attention control and emotional regulation – can help interrupt maladaptive patterns shaped by past experiences (…) Mindfulness helps to better regulate our emotions in the face of difficulties. For a person who experienced neglect or abuse during their childhood, the practice of mindfulness can help them better understand these experiences and react to them accurately.“continues the researcher.
For the authors, the
mindfulness strengthens self-awareness, the ability to return to the present and emotional regulation. In adults who have long been cut off from their emotions to protect themselves, this learning creates real room for maneuver.
For fifteen years, Eric Loucks has studied early adversity and its links with cardiovascular health, body mass index and blood pressure. Seeing a program designed for the heart also reduces depressionand even more so among people with difficult pasts, marks an important step in this work.
While early trauma increases the risk of cardiovascular and psychological disorders, these data suggest that targeted intervention could alleviate this vulnerability. The magnitude and durability of this effect in larger populations remains to be confirmed.