Investigating the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy and combination of pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in patients with major depression

Abstract

Depression is the fourth most common disease in the world (1, 2). The relative effectiveness of pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in the treatment of depression is still a debatable issue. The aim of present study was to investigate the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy and combination of pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in patients with major depression. The present study was a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest with two experimental groups. The statistical population of the study included all patients with major depression referred to Baharan Hospital in Zahedan in 2021. The study sample consisted of 30 patients who were selected by a convenience sampling and 15 people were randomly allocated to experimental group of pharmacotherapy, 15 people were randomly allocated to experimental group of combination of pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. The Beck Depression Inventory-second edition was used to collect data. SPSS statistical software was used to analyze the data. Given the nature of data, paired samples t-test and independent t-test were used. According to the results of this study, pharmacotherapy reduced patients' depression. The combination of pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has a therapeutic effect on patients with major depression. The combination of pharmacotherapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy compared to pharmacotherapy has a greater therapeutic effect on patients with major depression.