The Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy on Emotional, Cognitive, Motivational, and Biological Symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student of General psychology, Department of Psychology, Bojnourd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Bojnourd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Bojnourd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran

Abstract

Background: Major depressive disorder (ADHD) is associated with emotional, motivational, cognitive, behavioral, and biological symptoms. Depressed people have negative emotional experiences and are usually unhappy, frustrated, distressed, impatient, and discouraged.
Objective: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy on emotional, cognitive, motivational, and biological symptoms of major depressive disorder.
Method: The present study was semi-experimental research with pretest, posttest, and follow-up design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all patients referred to counseling and psychological center of a beautiful mind in Bojnourd city in 2019-20, among which 30 people were selected using purposeful sampling method and were assigned to two experimental groups (n=15) and control group (n=15). Data were obtained using a researcher-made depression questionnaire. Data were analyzed using repeated measure analysis of variance and SPSS.24 software.
Results: The results showed that emotion-focused couple therapy was effective in reducing emotional symptoms (P<0.01), cognitive (P<0.01), motivational (P<0.01), and biological symptoms (P<0.01) of major depressive disorder.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that emotion-focused couple therapy is effective in reducing emotional, cognitive, motivational, and biological symptoms of people with major depressive disorder and this treatment can be used to improve the problems of depressed individuals.

Keywords

References

 1.Soskin DP, Carl JR, Alpert J, Fava M. Antidepressant
effects on emotional temperament: toward a
biobehavioral research paradigm for major depressive
disorder. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics.
2012;18(6):441-51.
2.Johnson LA, Edwards M, Gamboa A, Hall J, Robinson
M, O'Bryant SE. Depression, inflammation, and memory
loss among Mexican Americans: analysis of the HABLE
cohort. International psychogeriatrics.
2017;29(10):1693-9.
3.Dieringer DD, Lenz JG, Hayden SC, Peterson GW.
The relation of negative career thoughts to depression
and hopelessness. The Career Development Quarterly.
2017;65(2):159-72.
4.Putnam KT, Wilcox M, Robertson-Blackmore E,
Sharkey K, Bergink V, Munk-Olsen T, Deligiannidis
KM, Payne J, Altemus M, Newport J, Apter G. Clinical
phenotypes of perinatal depression and time of symptom
onset: analysis of data from an international consortium.
The Lancet Psychiatry. 2017;4(6):477-85.
5.Goodman SH. Intergenerational transmission of
depression. Annual review of clinical psychology.
2020;16:213-38.
6.Qiu S, Hannigan B, Keogh D, Timulak L. Learning
emotion-focused therapy: certified emotion-focused
therapists’ perspectives. Person-Centered & Experiential
Psychotherapies. 2020;19(4):310-30.
7.Connolly-Zubot A, Timulak L, Hession N, Coleman N.
Emotion-focused therapy for anxiety and depression in
women with breast cancer. Journal of Contemporary
Psychotherapy. 2020;50(2):113-22.
8.Greenberg LS. Emotion-focused therapy of depression.
Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies.
2017;16(2):106-17.
9.Glisenti K, Strodl E, King R, Greenberg L. The
feasibility of emotion-focused therapy for binge-eating
Alavi H et al.
64 Razavi Int J Med. 2022; 10(2):e1153.
disorder: a pilot randomized wait-list control trial.
Journal of Eating Disorders. 2021;9(1):1-5.
10.Suhron M, Yusuf A, Subarniati R, Amir F, Zainiyah
Z. How does forgiveness therapy versus emotionfocused therapy reduce violent behavior schizophrenia
post restrain at East Java, Indonesia?. International
Journal of Public Health. 2020;9(4):314-9.
11.Ribeiro AP, Mendes I, Stiles WB, Angus L, Sousa I,
Gonçalves MM. Ambivalence in emotion-focused
therapy for depression: The maintenance of
problematically dominant self-narratives. Psychotherapy
Research. 2014;24(6):702-10.
12.Cunha C, Mendes I, Ribeiro AP, Angus L, Greenberg
LS, Gonçalves MM. Self-narrative reconstruction in
emotion-focused therapy: A preliminary task analysis.
Psychotherapy Research. 2017;27(6):692-709.
13.Greenberg LS. Emotion-focused therapy. Clinical
Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal
of Theory & Practice. 2004;11(1):3-16.
14.Cunha C, Gonçalves MM, Hill CE, Mendes I, Ribeiro
AP, Sousa I, Angus L, Greenberg LS. Therapist
interventions and client innovative moments in emotionfocused therapy for depression. Psychotherapy.
2012;49(4):536-47.
15.Muntigl P, Chubak L, Angus L. Entering chair work
in psychotherapy: An interactional structure for getting
emotion-focused talk underway. Journal of Pragmatics.
2017;117:168-89.
16.McKinnon JM, Greenberg LS. Vulnerable emotional
expression in emotion-focused couples therapy: Relating
interactional processes to an outcome. Journal of marital
and family therapy. 2017;43(2):198-212.
17.Timulak L, Keogh D, McElvaney J, Schmitt S,
Hession N, Timulakova K, Jennings C, Ward F.
Emotion-focused therapy as a transdiagnostic treatment
for depression, anxiety and related disorders: Protocol
for an initial feasibility randomized control trial. HRB
open research. 2020;3(2):12-24.
18.Taylor JZ, Lewis CL. Counseling adults with food
allergies after an anaphylactic reaction: An application
of emotion-focused therapy. Journal of Mental Health
Counseling. 2018;40(1):14-25.
19.Stiegler JR, Molde H, Schanche E. Does an
emotion‐focused two‐chair dialogue add to the
therapeutic effect of the empathic attunement to affect?.
Clinical psychology & psychotherapy. 2018;25(1):86-95.
20.Robinson A. Emotion-focused therapy for autism
spectrum disorder: A case conceptualization model for
trauma-related experiences. Journal of contemporary
psychotherapy. 2018;48(3):133-43.
21.Matthews KM. The integration of emotion-focused
therapy within single-session therapy. Journal of
Systemic Therapies. 2018;37(4):15-28.
22.Harrington S, Pascual‐Leone A, Paivio S,
Edmondstone C, Baher T. Depth of experiencing and
therapeutic alliance: What predicts outcome for whom in
emotion‐focused therapy for trauma?. Psychology and
Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. 2021;
2(2):26-37.
23.Timulak L, Keogh D, Chigwedere C, Wilson C, Ward
F, Hevey D, Griffin P, Jacobs L, Irwin B. A comparison
of emotion-focused therapy and cognitive-behavioral
therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder:
study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials.
2018;19(1):1-12. 
Razavi International Journal of Medicine
Volume 10, Issue 2
April 2022
Pages 58-64

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics