مجله علوم روانشناختی (Dec 2023)

The efficacy of metacognitive therapy on reducing depression symptoms and distress tolerance in depressed patients

  • Behjat Mohammadnezhady,
  • Arzoo Shamali Oskoei,
  • Mehran Soleimani

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 131
pp. 2301 – 2320

Abstract

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Background: Recent evidences indicate the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy, and its long-term effect on the treatment of behavioral disorders. On the other hand, new studies confirm a prominent role in distress tolerance in many prevalent disorders. Therefore, there is a need to conduct more extensive and diverse studies on the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in the treatment of depression disorder and distress tolerance. Aims: The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in reducing depression symptoms and improving distress tolerance level in depressed patients. Methods: The current research is a quasi-experiment with pre- and post-tests with a two-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research includes women admitted to the counseling clinic in Urmia city in the summer and fall of 2022, who were diagnosed with depression through interview and clinical evaluation. In the first stage, 30 women with depression were selected as the statistical population of the research, and in the next stage, they were divided into 2 metacognitive therapy group (15 people) and the control group (15 people) through a random selection. Beck's depression questionnaire (1961) and Simoes et al.'s distress tolerance questionnaire (2005) were completed in three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. After collecting information, the data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. Results: The results of the research showed that metacognitive therapy significantly improved depression (p<0.01) and distress tolerance (p<0.01) scores compared to the control group. Conclusion: These results show that metacognitive therapy is effective in reducing depression symptoms and improving distress tolerance in depressed patients. These therapeutic effects were stable for up to two months post-intervention.

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