Mindfulness-based focused attention training versus progressive muscle relaxation in remitted depressed patients: Effects on salivary cortisol and associations with subjective improvements in daily life.

Major Depression is a stress-related disorder characterized by altered hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function. Mindfulness-based interventions have shown to improve subjective parameters of stress and to reduce relapse rates in depressed patients. However, research on their effects on diurnal patterns of cortisol and associations with subjective outcomes is lacking.