Comparison of the Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy on Interpersonal Relationships between Couples with Depression

Ghari Saadati, Leili; Ghorban Shiroudi, Shohreh; Khalatbari, Javad

doi:10.32592/ajnmc.30.1.30

Volume 30, Issue 1 (Winter 2022) Avicenna J Nurs Midwifery Care 2022, 30(1): 30-41 | Back to browse issues page

‎ 10.32592/ajnmc.30.1.30

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Ghari Saadati L, Ghorban Shiroudi S, Khalatbari J. Comparison of the Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy on Interpersonal Relationships between Couples with Depression. Avicenna J Nurs Midwifery Care 2022; 30 (1) :30-41
URL: http://nmj.umsha.ac.ir/article-1-2405-en.html

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy on Interpersonal Relationships between Couples with Depression

Leili Ghari Saadati¹

, Shohreh Ghorban Shiroudi ^*

², Javad Khalatbari¹

1- Department of Psychology and Counseling, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran
2- Department of Psychology and Counseling, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran , drshohrehshiroudi@gmail.com

Keywords: Compassion-Focused Therapy, Depressed Couples, Interpersonal Relationships, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

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Background and Objective

Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in human society that occurs in response to certain external events, such as the death of loved ones, divorce, and violence, or without any apparent cause. A person with depression, in addition to being depressed, lacks enough motivation to do his activities; as a result, the energy level decreases dramatically and the person always feels tired and exhausted without doing anything. Depressed people are indifferent to themselves and their lives and often attribute various shortcomings and inadequacies to themselves. One of the problems that people with depression face is the inability to establish positive and desirable relationships with others; therefore, in other people's opinion, depressed individuals lack desirable and optimal interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal communication is the process in which we share our information and feelings with others through verbal and non-verbal messages. The need to have interpersonal relationships in adulthood manifests itself in the form of the need to participate in social activities, and dissatisfaction with it leads to feelings of loneliness. Effective therapies for interpersonal communication between couples with depression include Compassion-Focused Therapy and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.

Materials and Methods

The present quasi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest control group design and follow-up. In this study, the group related to the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy was the first intervention group and the group related to the compassion-Focused Therapy was the second intervention group. The statistical population of the present study included all couples referring to family counseling clinics in District 1 of Mashhad, Iran, in 2018, who were already diagnosed with depression (n=450 couples). The inclusion criteria for the couples were being willing to receive the therapeutic intervention, living together for at least 5 years, not participating in any other treatment intervention at the same time, having one to three children, not being remarried, having depression or obvious signs of depression, getting a score higher than the cut-off point (10) on the Beck Depression Scale, participating simultaneously and together in treatment sessions. On the other hand, the couples who did not attend the intervention sessions for more than 2 sessions, were separated, were unwilling to participate and continue the treatment sessions were excluded from the study. The research process and intervention administration were initiated by selecting 163 eligible couples who answered the interpersonal communication questionnaire in the pre-test conditions.

Results

Descriptive findings showed that the mean scores of the variable interpersonal relationships in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages were obtained respectively at 44.32±4.68, 45.51±4.50, and 42.32±4.12 for the control group; 45.53±4.77, 59.32±5.93, and 67.18±6.75 for the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy group; and 43.19±4.62, 63.74±6.04, and 73.22±7.39 for the Compassion-Focused Therapy group. The results of comparing the groups showed that Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy had significant effects on the interpersonal relationships between couples with depression (P<0.05). Moreover, there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy on the interpersonal communications between couples with depression (P<0.05).

Conclusion

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term solution-oriented therapy and treatment on compassion in the interpersonal relationships of couples with the disease. The results of data analysis generally showed the group of interventions that were affected by short-term solution-oriented therapy were more compassionate than the control group and the control group that did not receive any training, at least two groups had significant differences in interpersonal communication variances. Another key finding of the present study was that compassion-based therapy was effective in the interpersonal relationships of couples with depression in both the post-test and follow-up stages. In general, the results of the present study revealed that Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy were effective in the interpersonal relationships of couples with depression. The most important application of the present study was that couples with depression gain knowledge and insight into the extent of their interpersonal relationships. Based on the findings of this study and considering the effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy on interpersonal relationships in depressed couples, it is recommended that family counselors and couple therapists adopt the methods and exercises of these two types of interventions to increase interpersonal communication between depressed couples.

Type of Study: Original Research | Subject: Mental health
Received: 2021/12/13 | Accepted: 2022/01/6 | Published: 2022/05/15

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