Effectiveness of Emotion Focused Therapy on Emotional Dysregulation, Hopelessness and Suicidal Ideation in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Veterans

Abstract

Aims: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the prominent psychological consequences of war that is seen in veterans. Emotion-focused therapy is a short-term intervention that can target a range of disruptions to the disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of emotion-focused therapy on emotional distress, suicidal ideation and disappointment of veterans with PTSD. Materials & Methods: In this semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest design with control group in year 2016, 50 veterans with PTSD who were referred to Isfahan Ardabil psychiatric hospital were selected through convenient sampling and randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control groups. The data were collected using a post-traumatic stress disorder checklist-military version, Desperate Beck Questionnaire, Beck Suicidal Thinking Scale, and Threat Settlement Scale. Then, the sessions focused on excitement were performed for 8 sessions of 1.5 hours for the experimental group. Data were analyzed by SPSS 23 software using multivariate covariance analysis test. Findings: After controlling the effects of pretest, there was a significant difference between the mean posttest scores of the two groups in each of the emotional maladaptive, suicidal ideation and disappointment variables (p<0.05). Conclusion: Emotion-focused therapy can reduce emotional distress, suicidal thoughts and frustration of veterans with PTSD.

Keywords

• dysthymic disorder
• emotional dysregulation
• suicidal ideation
• emotion-focused therapy