The Effect of group reminiscence therapy on the reducing of depression, anxiety and the improvment of interpersonal relationships among elderly living in retirement home at Mashhad

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of reminiscence technique on reducing depression , anxiety and improvement of interpersonal relationships among the old people of the retirement home . This research is based on a quasi-experimental design . The study population includes all of the residents of a retirement home in Mashhad city from which 30 old people was selected randomly and then was divided in control and experimental groups . Six group reminiscence sessions were held for control group for 90 minutes and the control group during the study period , remained without any intervention . The amount of depression , anxiety and interpersonal relationships quality of the old people participating in the study, before and after the intervention was examined using the depression and anxiety questionnaire of Back and the questionnaire of relationship quality of Pierce. The study findings at assurance level of 95 percent showed that at beginning most of the old people participated in the research in both control and experimental groups suffer depression, anxiety and the quality of relationships. After the intervention and holding group reminiscence sessions for experimental group, frequency distribution of depression, anxiety and relationship quality of the tested old people in this group was improved significantly. Therefore, regarding the results it can be said that group reminiscence is effective on reducing anxiety and depression as well as improving the interpersonal relationships of old people.