The Effectiveness of Existential Group Psychotherapy on Postpartum Depression in Nulliparous Women

The main objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of existential group psychotherapy on depression in nulliparous women with postpartum depression.
This is an applied study that was conducted by a quasi-experimental. For this purpose, 100 primiparous women in their first six months delivery completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) by the phone.32 women that werent at risk for postpartum depression, were excluded. Of the remaining 68 mothers, finally, by the clinical interview, 26 subjects (age: 29.23M =; 39.2SD =) achieved the Inclusion criteria. Then, they were appointed in control and experimental groups by random assignment. Members who attended in experimental group achieved 10 sessions of weekly group therapy by existential method, but the control group received no intervention. Finally, members of both groups completed Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale (EPDS).
Findings: The results of comparing post-test of depression scores in two groups with using analysis of covariance by controlling the effect variables showed that there were significant differences in Depression scores in intervention group and the control group (05.0p Discussion & Thus, based on the findings of this study it can be said that the method of existential group psychotherapy decreased depressive symptoms in nulliparous women with postpartum depression.