Effects of dialectical behavior therapy with medical therapy vs. medical therapy alone in reducing suicidal thoughts in patients with major depressive disorder and recent history of attempted suicide

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of dialectical behavior therapy accompanied with medical therapy, and medical therapy alone in reducing the rate of suicide attempts in people who have major depression. Research method is a semi-experimental socio-statistic approach consisting of experimental group (dialectical behavior therapy accompanied with the medical therapy) and control group (medical therapy). Participants were patients referred to Loghman Hospital, Azadi Mental Hospital and Mehre-Taban Psychological Center in Tehran and who were diagnosis with major depression with suicide ideas. Based on stratified random sampling, 12 patients (seven women and five men) were placed in each group.. Research tools included the structured diagnosis interview according to DSM-IV-TR (2000), Beck Depression (2005) and Suicide Inventory (1997). Medical therapy and dialectical behavior therapy were done for seven months (two sessions per week, consisting of 28 individuals sessions & 28 groups sessions). Indicate that dialectical behavior therapy accompanied with medical therapy was more effective than medical therapy alone in reducing suicide tendency. It could be inferred that the dialectical behavior therapy because of its characteristics may be considered a practical therapeutic technique for working with depressed patients with suicidal tendencies who may be at a critical state.