The comparison of efficacy pharmacotherapy and group cognitive therapy in dimensions of temperament and character of patients with major depression disorder

Background: Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders which has the fourth rank among the most acute problems of public health. This study aims to compare the efficacy of two treatment methods of group Pharmacotherapy and group Cognitive therapy on the temperament and character dimensions of depressed patients.

 Methods: 45 male patients with depression were assigned randomly in three groups including pharmacotherapy, cognitive therapy and control. Then inventories of Beck Depression II, and temperament and character of cloninger before and after interventions were conducted in it. Data were analyzed using One–Way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests.

Results: The results showed that depressive symptoms reduced in both experimental groups, without significant differences between them. In dimensions of temperament and character, results showed that both treatments after performing post test caused a decrease in scores of Harm Avoidance and Reward Dependence dimensions and increase in scores of novelty seeking, persistence, cooperativeness, self-transcendence and self-directedness dimensions.

Conclusion: Methods of treatment in terms of efficacy for improvement of major depression disorder have no significant difference, but they can be ranked in this order 1) pharmacotherapy 2) cognitive therapy 3) control. Also, two methods of treatment caused changes in the temperament and character dimensions and there was significant difference between both groups and control group.