The Effect of Spiritual and Religious Group Psychotherapy on Suicidal Ideation in Depressed Patients.

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Suicide is a great economic, social and public health problem. It is prevalent worldwide and has a lot of negative effects on individuals, families and society. Depression is often prelude to Suicide. An important part of the treatment of the mentally ill patients is spiritual –religious psychotherapy which should be done after physical treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of spiritual –religious Group psychotherapy on suicidal ideation in depressed patients. Methods: 54 depressed patients with suicidal ideation from Razi hospital (Tabriz, Iran) participated in this clinical trial. Patients randomly assigned into intervention or control groups. (n=27 in each group). To collect data a valid and reliable questionnaire was used which included Demographic and Beck Suicide Scale Ideation. After pretest, intervention group participated in 10 sessions of group psychotherapy. Each section lasted 1 hour. 2 weeks after the last section post -test was done. SPSS 13 statistical software was used for data analysis. Results: results of independent T test revealed no difference between two groups in terms of suicidal ideation before intervention but after study there is a statistical difference. Also the results of ANOVA test showed a significant relationship between spiritual group therapy and decrease in suicidal ideation, so that this intervention can make 57% of variance in suicidal ideation of intervention group. Conclusion: Regarding positive effect of Spiritual and Religious group psychotherapy on decreasing suicidal ideation of depressed patients, we suggest this intervention to be held in psychiatric Wards and also more study on other psychic patients with greater sample size would be helpful. Keywords: Depression, Suicidal ideation, Spiritual and Religious group psychotherapy.