The Effect Of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy In Cognitive Fusion, Emotional Dysregulation, And Suicidal Ideation In Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

Mindfulness may be considered as a state of promoting self-awareness to improve cognitive fusion, emotional dysregulation, and suicidal thoughts. Therefore this study was done aimed to evaluate the effect of mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in cognitive fusion, emotional dysregulation, and suicidal ideation in patients with major depressive disorder.

The research was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all people with major depressive disorder who referred to the zhuan Clinic in Tehran in 2021. 30 patients with major depression were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly in two experimental groups (15 subjects) and control subjects (15 subjects) were included. During eight 90-minute sessions, the experimental group was subjected to mindfulness-based therapy group 2 days a week, but no intervention was performed on the control group. Both before and after the intervention, answered standard Guilford et al.'s cognitive fusion questionnaires (2010), Gratz and Romer (2004) emotion difficulty scale, and Beck's (1979) suicidal ideation scale.To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of covariance was used using SPSS software version 23.

There was a significant difference between the average post-test scores of the intervention group and the control group. In this way, the cognitive therapy training based on mindfulness significantly led to a decrease in the mean post-test score of cognitive fusion variables, emotional dysregulation and suicidal thoughts compared to the pre-test scores in the intervention group (P<0.01).

According to the obtained results, the use of group therapies such as mindfulness has positive effects on reducing on cognitive fusion, emotional dysregulation, and suicidal ideation in patients with major depressive disorder. Therefore, in different stages of treatment or after, it is possible to help reduce Cognitive and emotional variables by providing this type of training.