Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy on Rumination and Severity of Depression in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Authors

Abstract

Introduction: Present study was conducted to examine effectiveness of emotional schema therapy (EST) on rumination and severity of depression in patients with major depressive disorder.

Method: Pretest and post-test design and single group follow up was used in this pre-experimental study. 11 patients (7 women and 4 men) who had attended to Rahiar clinic were selected by convenience sampling method. They participated in 9 sessions (every week of 90-minute session) of emotional schema therapy and patients were followed for two months to assess the sustainability of the effects of treatment over time.

In this study depression, In order to assess major depression, severity of depression and rumination were assessed by using structured clinical interview for DSM-IV-TR (SCID), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) respectively. Data was analyzed by using  repeated measures analysis of variance.

Results: Results showed that emotional schema therapy (EST) has reduced severity of depression (p<0/0001) and rumination (p<0/0001) significantly and this reduction was consistent in follow up period.

Conclusion: Based on research's findings, emotional schema therapy (EST) as new cognitive behavioral therapy can be used to decrease severity of depression and rumination in patients with major depression

Keywords