Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Depressive Symptoms of Young Female

Abstract

Epidemiological studies from Pakistan have reported a high rate of depression among Women. Cognitive behavior therapy is effective treatment for depression and very popular in the west currently. There is a small number of studies from Pakistan in which cognitive behavior therapy is use to treat depression. This study is to test effectiveness of Cognitive behavior therapy for depression among females. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of Cognitive behavior Therapy (CBT) on depressive symptoms of young females. It was hypothesized that Cognitive behavior therapy will reduce symptoms of depression and females receiving cognitive behavioral interventions would score low on Physician depression scale as compared to those females receiving no interventions. Compared 25 participants in therapy group with 25 participants in controi group. All the participants were selected from a university of Karachi city using purposive sampling technique. Participants fulfilling selection criteria were approached and those who consented to participate were assessed for their suitability for therapy. After assessment, they were offered to participate in trial. These participants were then be randomly allocated to either experimental or control group. Assessments were being carried out at baseline and end of therapy (12 weeks). The variable of interest was measure of depressive symptoms and *change in this variable over time and as a result of therapy. Physician Depression Questionnaire (PDQ-9.U.S. Preventive Service Task Force, 2009) were used to record changes in depression and both parametric and non parametric tests were used to analyze data .Paired and independent t test were used for the statistical analysis of the data. Both hypotheses were highly significant at p<0.05. This indicates that cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in young Pakistani females with depressive symptoms. Study findings have important implication regarding Cognitive Behavior therapy (CBT) on depressive young females. Avenues for the future research have also been suggested, while limitation and implications have been illustrated.