The evaluation of the effect of adding Clonidine to Sertraline in the severity of attachment and suffering from detachment in depression of the post-breakup women

Abstract

Breakup of a romantic relationship imposes considerable grief to individuals and is actually a psychological and physiological challenge. The current study is a clinical trial for evaluating of efficacy of Clonidine in reducing intensity of love and suffering from emotional breakup in women. Method: A sample of 90 female patients with the mean age of 29.55±4.65 years were recruited and divided into the intervention group (n=45) and the control group (n=45). All patients were experiencing a diagnosed depression due to a romantic breakup during the last 6 months. The control group received a standard pharmacotherapy for depression which was 50 mg Sertraline daily. The intervention group received an additional 0.05 mg Clonidine daily. The treatment was continued for 8 weeks and the subjective report of the patients for intensity of love and suffering were measured by the visual analog scale. Comparison of pretreatment and posttreatment intensity of love and suffering were analyzed using ANCOVA. Results: In mean analysis, there was a significant difference between intervention and control group in the reduction of suffering (P<0/000), sertraline and clonidine group showing more reduction in post-break up suffering in comparison to sertraline group.Mean analysis of two groups revealed no difference in reduction of love.