Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy and Drug Therapy on Treatment of Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Introduction: Besides traditional methods of pharmacotherapy, the effectiveness of the third wave of cognitive and behavioral approaches, especially in the field of depression, has been the subject of considerable debate in the recent years. Thus, this study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy (ACT) and pharmacotherapy on the improvement of patients with major depressive disorder.

Methods: This study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group and two experimental groups. The statistical population consisted of all patients on maintenance therapy with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder at welfare centers of Shahrekord city (Chaharmahal-o-Bakhtiari Province, Iran) in 2015. Forty-five patients were selected using the convenient sampling method and randomly allocated into three groups of ACT therapy, pharmacotherapy, and a control group. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used for data collection and the data were analyzed using analysis of covariance and the Scheffe tests by the SPSS software.

Results: The mean scores of the post-test for the ACT therapy, pharmacotherapy, and the control group were 12.40, 23.13, and 36.27, respectively. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the two experimental groups (ACT therapy, and pharmacotherapy) and that of the control group (F = 110.33, P < 0.001). Also, both treatments had a significant effect on reducing the symptoms of the major depressive disorder, although the ACT therapy was more effective than the pharmacotherapy.

Conclusions: According to the findings of this study, the ACT therapy can be suggested as an effective method and as a beneficial clinical intervention, along with pharmacotherapy, to improve depression.