The Effect of Schema Therapy on Severity of Depression and Suicidal Thoughts in Patients with Resistant to Depression

Abstract

Background & Aim: Therapeutic schemas model emphasizes the role of early maladaptive schemas in psychological disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of schema therapy on the severity of depression and suicidal thoughts in patients with depressive disorder. Methods: This research was a semi experimental study using pre-test and post-test with control group. among all patients with treatment resistance depression visited in Naft and Sadooghi hospital of Tehran, 30 patients were selected through inclusion-exclusion criteria and availability sampling method then randomly were assigned into two equal experimental (15 persons) and control (15 persons) groups. Experimental group experienced 12 weeks of schema therapy, while control group were just followed. Beck depression inventory (BDI-II) and Beck suicide scale ideation (BSSI) were used in pre-test and post-test as the. Data were analyzed by Mancova via SPSS software. Results: The results of this study showed that the mean scores of depression and suicidal ideation decreased significantly in the experimental group in the post test compared to the control group (p <0.0001). In other words, schema therapy sessions reduced the severity of depression and suicidal thoughts in patients with depression resistant to treatment. Conclusion: The results indicate that schema therapy can be used as an effective intervention to reduce the severity of depression and suicidal thoughts in people with depressive disorder. Therefore, it is suggested that psychologists and psychiatrists use a therapeutic schema to reduce the psychological problems of people with depressive disorder.

Keywords

• Schema Therapy
• Severity of Depression
• Suicidal thoughts
• Resistant Depression