The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Social Anxiety and Psychological Well-Being of Depressed Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

 Depression as an emotional factor is one of the mental disorders that should be seriously considered. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on the social anxiety, rumination, and psychological well-being of people with depression.

 The present study was a randomized clinical trial with a control group. The target population was people with depression who referred to the integrated health centers in Abadan, Iran. 30 people with depression who were willing to participate in the study were purposefully selected according to the study inclusion criteria and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (each group consisted of 15 people). The volunteers were requested to fill the research questionnaires in the pre-test stage. Then, the experimental group participated in 9 sessions of CBT and the control group was saved on the treatment waiting list. After the last treatment session for the experimental group, both groups filled the questionnaires again in the post-test and follow-up stages. Data were collected using Persian version of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Social Anxiety Questionnaire, Rumination Questionnaire, and Psychological Well-being Scale. Data analysis was performed using one-variable analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) test at the significance level of 0.05.

 Group CBT had a significant effect on social anxiety (P ≤ 0.001), rumination (P ≤ 0.001), and quality of life (QOL) (P ≤ 0.001) of people with depression.

 Group CBT is effective on social anxiety, rumination, and psychological well-being of people with depression and this approach can be recommended to improve the psychological problems of people with depression.