comparison of the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy and quality of life therapy on self-criticism and psychopathological symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder

Background and objectives: the main feature of major depressive disorder (mdd) is mood swings (from minor disappointment to extreme despair) for several days, weeks, months, or even years. this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy and quality of life (qol) therapy on self-criticism and psychopathological symptoms in patients with mdd. materials and methods: this quasi-experimental study was conducted based on a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design with a control group. the subjects included 45 mdd patients admitted to the psychological advisory centers in neyshabur, iran who were selected using the convenience sampling method. the patients were randomly divided into three groups: the compassion-focused therapy (cft) group, the qol therapy group, and the control group. the members of the cft group and qol therapy received 8 and 10 therapy sessions, respectively, while the control group members were put on a waiting list. the research tools were a self-criticism scale, depression-anxiety-stress scale, and beck-depression inventory-ii. the participants were tested before the therapeutic interventions, immediately after the sessions, and two-month after the last session. the data were analyzed using the variance analysis test by repetitive measurements in the spss software (version 24). results: based on the results, both therapies are effective in the reduction of self-criticism (p<0.001) and psychopathological symptoms (p<0.001); however, this effect was significantly higher in the cft group, compared to the qol therapy group (p<0.001). conclusion: given the biological and psychological infrastructure of mdd, using the qol therapy and self-compassion approaches (in addition to medication) can be effective in reducing mdd symptoms.