The efficacy of brief cognitive-behavioral therapy in depression, suicidal thoughts and cognitive emotion regulation in women attempting suicide

Due to the increasing focus of new therapies on immediate and short-term interventions, brief cognitive-behavioral therapy has been designed with the goal of disabling suicidal mode and stabilizing symptoms by creating self-efficacy in emotion regulation skills and cognitive flexibility. But there is a research gap regarding the possibility of the effectiveness of this treatment in Iranian society.

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of brief cognitive-behavioral therapy on depression, suicidal thoughts and cognitive emotion regulation in women attempting suicide.

The present study was a semi-experimental research with a pretest-posttest-follow-up control group design. The statistical population comprised women who attempted suicide in Isfahan in 2020. Thirty patients were selected by purposive sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (15 patients in each group). The research tools include, Beck Depression Inventory-II (1996), Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (1979) and Garnefski Cognitive Emotion ‎Regulation Questionnaire‎ (2001), and 12 90-minute sessions brief cognitive-behavioral therapy (Brian & Rood, 2018). Data analysis was performed by repeated measures analysis of variance.

The findings demonstrate that brief cognitive-behavioral therapy increases adapted emotion regulation strategies and reduces non-adapted strategies, suicidal thoughts and depression at the end of the intervention and follow-up period (P<0.01).

Brief cognitive-behavioral therapy can reduce depression, suicidal ideation, and non-adapted cognitive emotion regulation strategies in people who attempt suicide.