Comparing the Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on Depression Taking into Account the Level of Psycho-Spiritual Development (Case Study)

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders so choosing an appropriate therapy is very important. Regarding to the role of spirituality in depression and its therapeutic methods, this research attempts to compare the role of the level of Psycho-spiritual development of individuals in the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy. For this purpose, among the students of Tarbiat Modares University, 8 subjects with basic depression were selected using available sampling method, and then based on their scores in Psycho-Spiritual Scale (Janbozorgi, 1391), they were divided into two groups of 4 with high Psycho-spiritual development and 4 with low Psycho-spiritual development. Then subjects of each level of Psycho-spiritual development were randomly assigned to two experimental groups (acceptance and commitment therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy). Depression scores of patients before, during and after treatment, as well as follow up, were compared with the percentage of recovery and the effect size. The results showed that both treatments, acceptance and commitment and cognitive-behavioral therapy, were effective on decreasing depression, but acceptance and commitment therapy was more effective in decreasing the depression of individuals with low Psycho-spiritual development, and cognitive-behavioral therapy was more effective in Reducing people's depression with higher levels of Psycho-spiritual development. Therefore, it seems that paying attention to the level of Psycho-spiritual development of clients in choosing a therapeutic approach is of great importance.