Comparison of the Effectiveness of Existential Group Therapy with Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy on Depression among Patients on Methadone Maintainance Therapy in Qazvin Province

• Main Authors: Saeed Alami, Saeed Bakhtiarpour, Parviz Asgari, Naser Seraj-Khorrami
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences 2020-11-01
• Series: Salāmat-i ijtimā̒ī
• Subjects: existential group therapy, cognitive-behavioral group therapy, depression, methadone maintenance therapy
• Online Access: http://ojs2.sbmu.ac.ir/en-ch/article/view/31267
• ISSN: 2423-4702; 2423-4702

Background and Objective: Drug addiction is a chronic illness that can often be associated with another psychiatric illness, such as depression. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of existential group therapy and cognitive behavioral group therapy on depression among patients on Methadone Maintainance Therapy (MMT) in Qazvin Province. Materials and Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, and control group. Participants included 90 male patients on MMT rehabilitation facilities of Qazvin in 2019, who were purposefully selected and randomly divided into three groups: an experimental group under 10 weekly 120-minute existential group therapy, an experimental group under 10 weekly 120-minute cognitive-behavioral therapy, and a control group. All three groups completed Beck's Depression Questionnaire before the intervention, after the intervention and after 3 months. Data were analyzed using repeated measure test in SPSS software version 22. Results: In the group receiving cognitive-behavioral intervention, the mean (SD) score of depression varied from 44.5 (3.3) in the pre-test to 34.9 (3.1) in the post-test and 34.1 (3.5) in the follow-up, p<0.001. In the group receiving existential therapy intervention, the mean (SD) score of depression varied from 47.7 (3.2) in the pre-test, to 37.1 (5.5) in the post-test, and 35.9 (5.4) in the follow-up phase, p<0.001. In the control group, the mean (SD) score of depression did not vary significantly in pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The effect size of cognitive-behavioral therapy (Eta=0.53) was greater than the effect size of existential therapy (Eta=0.24) in reducing depression, which indicates a greater effictivenesss of cognitive-behavioral therapy compared to existential therapy in depression reduction. Conclusion: It can be concluded that both cognitive-behavioral therapy and existential therapy are effective in reducing depression among patients under MMT, with cognitive-behavioral therapy being more effective in reducing depression than existential therapy. Ethical code: IR.IAU.AHVAZ.REC.1398.015. DOI: http://doi.org/10.28996/ch.v7i3.28996