Background and Objective: Depression is the most common psychiatric diagnosis. It causes major health problems. Women are more likely to develop depression than men. This study was done to investigate the effect of group mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on reducing depression and improving the quality of life of female students.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 26 female students. Students non-randomly were divided into control and intervention groups. Students in intervention group were received the two periods (8 sessions, 2 hours at week) of training in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. All the participants filled out Beck depression inventory II (BDI-II) and World Health Organization Quality of Life – BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) in perior and after the study.
Results: In the intervention group the mean and standard deviation of pre-test and post-test scores of BDI-II was 20.23±6.98 and 13.38±4.97, respectively (P<0.05). In the intervention group, mean and standard deviation of pre-test and post-test scores of WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was 66.77±13.39 and 86.84±10.60, respectively (P<0.05). Also, the mean scores of post-test of quality of life in all subgroups items was significantly increased in compared to the pre-test in the intervention group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy increases the quality of life and reduced depression in female students.
