Comparison of the Effectiveness of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy and Schema Therapy on Depression, Anxiety in Mothers with Autistic Children

This study's aim was to compare the effectiveness of Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy and schema therapy on depression and anxiety in mothers with autistic children.

The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test-post-test design with control and follow-up group for three months and the statistical population included all mothers of autistic children in educational and rehabilitation centers in Tehran in 2020. 45 people were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (15 people in each group). Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy sessions and schema therapy were held in 12 sessions of 60 minutes, individually, one session per week. Subjects completed Beck Depression Inventory (1996) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (1998) in the pre-test-post-test and follow-up stages. The data of the present study were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance.

The results showed that both intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy and schema therapy had reduced depression and anxiety compared to the control group and this effect was stable in follow-up (P<0.01). But intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy has further reduced depression compared to schema therapy. In contrast, the effect of the two treatments on anxiety at the level (P> 0.05) was not significant.

It was concluded that intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy is a more effective method to reduce depression in mothers with children with autism compared to schema therapy.