For how we live.
Across 34 trials, mindfulness apps produced small effects on stress, anxiety and depression, and none on general distress. A 2026 review confirms they can help without a facilitator — at low certainty.
The TAME trial randomised 276 adults with diagnosed anxiety disorders to mindfulness-based stress reduction or escitalopram. The difference on the primary measure was 0.07 points, inside the noninferiority margin.
A secondary analysis of 8,376 adolescents built two models to predict who benefits from school-based mindfulness training. Both found a subgroup — and the difference in outcomes was trivial.
A 1,151-person Hong Kong trial used trained lay counsellors, not clinicians, and no internet. The effect sizes are small, and the authors are explicit that they do not know whether it travels.
Mindfulness, yoga, exercise and positive psychology landed within a narrow band of each other. Only combining exercise with a psychological approach pulled clear, and nature-based programmes did not beat controls.