The effectiveness of mindful hypnotherapy on difficulties in emotion regulation, mindfulness, and mental health in patients with major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND: More than 300 million people are affected by major depressive disorder, and despite advances in treatments over the past 50 years, this number is increasing worldwide. Due to the high prevalence and increasing numbers, along with problems in various aspects of the patient's life, new effective treatments are essential in this field.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a single-blinded randomized clinical trial. Thirty-four patients with major depressive disorder who were referred by clinical psychologists in the clinical psychology clinic of the Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran, were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to the intervention and wait-list control groups. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and the Mental Health Continuum Short Form were administered during the baseline and post treatment. Analyses of covariance and the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedure were performed to determine the difference between study groups.

RESULTS: The results of the analysis of covariance and repeated measures ANOVA showed a clinically significant decrease in difficulties in emotion regulation and a significant increase in mindfulness and mental health in the intervention group ( P < 0.001). The mean score (standard deviation) of the difficulties in emotion regulation scores was 123.75 (21.10) in the experimental group at baseline and significantly decreased to 76.19 (26.45) and 68.00 (22.83) after the intervention and two-month follow-up, respectively ( P < 0.001). Additionally, the mean scores (standard deviation) for mindfulness and mental health were 93.06 (8.23) and 19.63 (7.92), respectively, at baseline and significantly increased to 149.43 (16.99) and 51.62 (9.78), respectively, after the intervention and to 144.18 (20.55) and 48.50 (13.52) after a two-month follow-up ( P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: The results show that mindful hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for improving difficulties in emotion regulation, mindfulness, and mental health in patients with major depressive disorder.