The Effectiveness of Michael Frey's Cognitive Group Therapy Method on Improvement of Depression and Anxiety among Prisoners

The prevalence of mental disorders is 3-4 folds higher among prisoners compared to normal individuals. In Iran, the prevalence of these disorders is 25-30% in the general population and 52-87.5% in prisons. The present study aimed to examine the effects of Michael Frey's cognitive group therapy method on reduction of the symptoms of anxiety and depression among prisoners.
In this quasi-experimental research with pre-post-test design and a control group, the research community included all the male prisoners. Among these prisoners, 30ones with moderate to severe anxiety and depression scores were selected and randomly divided into a control and an intervention group each containing 15 subjects. The study data were collected using Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory in the pre-test and post-test. Then, the data were analyzed using ANCOVA.
The results showed that depression scores of the intervention and control groups were respectively 38.46 and 37.06 in the pre-test and 17.60 and 36.93 in the post-test. Besides, the mean scores of anxiety in the intervention and the control group were respectively 41.40 and 40.33 in the pre-test and 17 and 37.80 in the post-test.
The results showed that cognitive group therapy could improve the symptoms of anxiety and depression among the prisoners. Therefore, Michael Frey's cognitive group therapy is suggested to be used to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression among prisoners.