Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) on Reducing Symptoms of Depression in Women

Solution-focused brief therapy is one of the common therapies effective in reducing psychological problems such as depression among therapists and family counselors. The present research was conducted by the aim of investigating the effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy on reducing symptoms of depression in women. The present research has a semi-experimental design, in which the method of pretest-posttest and follow-up with control group has been used. The population of the present research included all the women who had depression problem and visited the center of counseling and mental health in Bojnourd city, under supervision of north Khorasan welfare organization, in 2013 and depression was diagnosed for them based on clinical and diagnostic interview. By using available sampling method, 20 of those women were selected as the study sample, then, through random assignment, they were placed in two groups of control and experiment. The research tool was Beck Depression Inventory that was completed by the participants in three phases of pretest, posttest, and follow-up. Solution-focused brief therapy was held in 6 sessions of 1.5-hour in groups for the experiment group, but the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed through SPSS and by using univariate covariance analysis method. The results indicated a significant reduction in depression scores in women of the experiment group in posttest and follow-up phases in relation to the control group. Findings suggested that solution-focused brief therapy has led to reduction in depression symptoms of the women in the experiment group and the results also have been consistent enough in the follow-up phase (P<0.001). Solution-focused brief therapy is effective in reducing depression. Counselors and psychotherapists can use this effective therapeutic approach for solving psychological problems of clients.