The effect of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on reducing depression and anxiety in patients with mood disorders: experimental research

Mood disorders are one of the most common psychiatric disorders that manifest as a low mood in depressed people or a high mood in manic people. The cognitive-behavioral therapy group is one of the most effective forms of intervention available for patients with mood disorders. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of cognitive-behavioral group therapy in reducing depression and anxiety in patients with mood disorders. CASE PRESENTATION: The study was a semi-experimental study with a pretest-post-test design with a control group. The research subjects were 60 patients hospitalized in the psychiatric department of Razi Hospital in Tehran, who were randomly divided into two experimental (N:30) and control (N:30) groups. Both groups took medicine as usual. Before the therapeutic intervention, both groups were evaluated with Beck’s depression questionnaire and the Zung anxiety scale. In addition to drug therapy, the experimental group participated in ten sessions of the cognitive-behavioral therapy group, and in the control group, no psychological intervention was performed except for drug therapy. At the end of the nonpharmacological treatment intervention, both groups were evaluated again with the aforementioned tests. The obtained data were analyzed using independent and dependent t-tests. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: The research findings showed that the cognitive-behavioral therapy group was significantly (P<0.05) effective in reducing the depression of hospitalized patients with mood disorders, but this method did not have much effect in reducing the anxiety of the patients. CONCLUSION: Cognitive-behavioral group therapy can be effective in reducing depression in hospitalized patients with mood disorders.