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The effectiveness of mindfulness training on reducing the symptoms of postpartum depression
Identifier
027730
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Electron Physician. 2017 Jul; 9(7): 4753–4758.
Published online 2017 Jul 25. doi: [10.19082/4753]
PMCID: PMC5586989
PMID: 28894531
The effectiveness of mindfulness training on reducing the symptoms of postpartum depression
Hajieh Sheydaei,1 Azizreza Ghasemzadeh,2 Amir Lashkari,3 and Parvaneh Ghorbani Kajani4
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Background and Aim
Postpartum depression is one of the prevalent disorders among new mothers. The present research aimed to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness training on reducing the symptoms of postpartum depression.
Method
The present quasi-experimental research was conducted on 410 new mothers in Shahid Chamran Hospital, Tehran in 2014. Using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Structured Clinical Interview and Psychological Clinical Diagnosis, 67 mothers were selected and then randomly divided into experimental and control groups, each of which with 32 applicants. Afterwards, the experimental group received mindfulness training for 8 sessions, each lasting for two hours while the control group received no training. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS, version 20.
Results
Results showed that based on Beck Inventory, the scores for the experimental group in post-test were significant (p<0.001), compared to those for the control group. Also, it was revealed that pre- and posttest mean scores for postpartum depression in the control group were 25.81 and 25.12 respectively while the scores for the experimental group were 24.75 and 18.5 respectively. Since the posttest mean score in the experimental group was lower than that in the pretest, it can be said that the treatment, i.e., mindfulness training, was effective in reducing depression symptoms in mothers.
Conclusion
Findings proved that mindfulness training was effective in reducing the symptoms of postpartum depression in new mothers.
Keywords: Postpartum, Depression, Mindfulness training