The Effect of Combining Mindfulness-Based Cognitive ‎Therapy with Pharmacotherapy on ‎Depression and Emotion ‎Regulation of Patients with Dysthymia: A Clinical Study

Objective: Mindfulness skills are assumed to be related with emotions. Deficits in emotion ‎regulation could lead to development and persistence of mood disorders. Dysthymia and double ‎depression are two chronic types of depression. This chronicity can be attributed to the one’s ‎inability to regulate his/ her mood. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of mindfulness-‎based cognitive therapy (MBCT), which is one of the proposed methods for emotion regulation, ‎on depression and the ability of emotion regulation of patients with dysthymia.‎ Method: This clinical trial was conducted on 50 dysthymic and double ‎depressed patients. They were selected through convenience sampling and assigned into ‎intervention and control groups. The control group received only medication, while the MBCT ‎group participated in an eight- session program once a week with each session lasting for two to ‎two and half hours in addition to receiving medication. All the participants filled out Beck ‎Depression Inventory II and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale before and after the ‎program. Data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software (Version 16) and univariate ‎covariance statistical method.‎ Results: While there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups with ‎respect to the demographic characteristics, we observed a statistically significant improvement in ‎the defined variables in post-test of the MBCT group compared to the case group.‎ Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that combining MBCT and pharmacotherapy ‎could cause significant improvement in depression symptoms and increase the patient’s ability to ‎regulate emotion compared to pharmacotherapy alone‎.