EFFECTIVENESS OF GROUP COGNITIVE THERAPY BASED ON MICHAEL FREE IN REDUCING DEPRESSION IN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH MENTAL DISORDERS

Background & Aims: According to the increasing prevalence of depressive disorders, the aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of group cognitive therapy based on Michael Free in reducing depression in mothers of children with mental disorders.
Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on depressed mothers who had children with mental disorders who referred to private centers of Social Welfare Centers of Hamadan in 2014. Therefore, 18 mothers were selected (9 patients in the experimental group and 9 patients in the control group) based on inclusion criteria and available sampling. To compare the effectiveness of the approach, the experimental group received 12 sessions of 90-minute cognitive-behavioral skill intervention and the control group received no intervention. The therapeutic clusters were assessed with Beck Depression Inventory (2000) during both pre-test and post-test and the data were analyzed using t-test and analysis of covariance.
Results: The results of this study showed that there were significant differences between experimental and control groups after intervention (p<0.001). Implementation of group cognitive therapy based on Michael Free in experimental group decreased depression in mothers.
Conclusion: The study showed that the use of group cognitive therapy based on Michael Free is effective in reducing depression of mothers of children with mental disorders and it seems to be very efficient and promising.
Keywords: Cognitive group therapy, Depression, Michael Free, Psychiatric disorders