Comparing the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy and schema therapy on emotional Alexithymia in students with a history of suicide attempts

Comparing treatment approaches in psychology for more effectiveness in less time is one of the topics of interest to researchers, therefore the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy and schema therapy on Alexithymia in students with a history of suicide.

The method of semi-experimental research with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group included a one-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research consisted of all high school students of Shirvan city and suburbs who committed suicide in 1400. Using available sampling method, 45 people were randomly selected and divided into three groups(two experimental groups of schema therapy and cmindfulness-based therapy and the control group). The data collection tool was the Toronto Emotional Dyslexia Questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS.21 software and descriptive statistics and variance analysis of multivariate repeated measures.

The results indicated the effectiveness of two interventions on alexithymia, but according to the differences in the mean scores in different stages of measurement in the groups, mindfulness-based therapy is more effective than schema therapy in improving the alexithymia of students with a history of suicide (P≥0.001).

According to the findings, it is recommended to use a combination of both treatment methods and especially mindfulness-based treatment to improve mental health and reduce emotional dysregulation in students with a history of suicide attempts.