Evaluating The Use of Poetry To Reduce Signs of Depression in Students

Depression is a considerable problem all around the world. Estimations show that 15%-20% of adult people suffer from different complications and symptoms of depression. Although noticeable improvement in neurological science and determining the neuro-chemical basis of depression created an expectation to change the medical attempts toward pharmaceutical therapy in early 21st century, various kinds of non-pharmaceutical therapies and psychotherapies are still applied widely in therapeutic interventions to treat depression. Different types of art therapies such as poetry therapy have found a unique situation in psychotherapy during recent decades. The effect of poetry therapy on depression symptoms relieving has been examined in this study. A pre-post-test approach with control group was used in this quasi-experimental study. The participants included 29 undergraduate female students of Shahid Beheshti University selected by depression screening, whom were assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group covered 14 and the control 15 students. The experimental group received seven 90-120 min poetry therapy sessions, while the control group were in waiting list. All the participants completed the Bech Depression Inventory (BDI). The data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test along with SPSS software. The finds showed that the students in the experimental group reported less symptoms of depression, after intervention, as compared to those in the control group, (p= /001).Discusion & Results showed that poetry therapy plays a significant role in reducing the symptoms of depression (as shown by significant reductions in scores on BDS): thus, the previous researches conducted in the field were confirmed and supported by our finds.