Comparison of the Effectiveness of Grief Counseling and God-Oriented Spiritual Counseling on Depression Symptoms and Suicidal Ideation in People with COVID-19 Grief

 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, grief is currently a widely experienced psychological problem. Depression symptoms and suicidal ideation are associated with COVID-19 grief. Therefore, the present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of grief counseling and God-oriented spiritual counseling on depression symptoms and suicidal ideation in people with COVID-19 grief.

 The present experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design, a control group, and follow-up. The study population consisted of all residents of Shahr-e-Rey, Iran, who had lost a member of their family due to COVID-19.  Through purposive sampling, 51 individuals who were willing to participate in the study and met the study inclusion criteria were selected and were randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups and 1 control group (17 in each group). In the 3 stages of pretest, posttest, and follow-up, data were collected using the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1996) and Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (Beck et al., 1988). The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS software.

 The results showed that both methods of intervention were effective in reducing depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. However, the effect of God-oriented spiritual counseling was greater than the other intervention. The study findings showed that the interaction effect of group × time for symptoms of depression (η2 = 0.343; P < 0.001; F = 12.53) and suicidal thoughts (η2 = 0.148; P < 0.001; F = 4.16) were significant at the 0.01 level.

 In general, the present study showed that God-oriented spiritual counseling, compared to grief counseling, is more effective on the symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts.