The effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness on rumination and negative spontaneous thoughts in the elderly with depressive disorder

Depression is one of the common disorders of the elderly and this disorder is affected by psychological treatments. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on awareness on rumination and negative spontaneous thoughts in the elderly with depressive disorder.

The research method was semi-experimental with experimental and control groups. The statistical population of this research included all the elderly people who referred to the counseling and psychological services center in Amol city (from the 10th of Mehr 1400 to the 10th of Khordad 1401). Sampling was available and 30 people who got the highest score in the Beck Depression Questionnaire (1961) were selected as a sample and then randomly assigned 15 people to the experimental group and 15 people to the control group by lottery. Kashi were allocated. The experimental group underwent cognitive therapy training based on mindfulness for 8 sessions, once a week for 90 minutes. While the control group did not receive any intervention. In order to collect data, Beck's depression questionnaire (1961), Nalen-Hoeksma and Maro's rumination questionnaire (1991) and Kendall and Halon's negative spontaneous thoughts questionnaire (1980) were used. In order to analyze the data, descriptive tests (mean and standard deviation) and covariance analysis were used with SPSS version 24 software.

The results showed that cognitive therapy based on awareness has an effect on rumination and negative spontaneous thoughts of the elderly with depressive disorder (P<0.005).

According to the results of this research, the use of cognitive therapy intervention based on mindfulness can be suggested in reducing rumination and negative spontaneous thoughts in the elderly with major depressive disorder.