Abstract
Objectives
Postmenopausal women are at greater risk of depression. Depression may negatively affect the quality of life of women. An emotional freedom technique (EFT) is an evidence-based therapy combining cognitive and exposure components with acupressure. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of EFT on depression in postmenopausal women.
Methods
This was a randomized controlled trial in which 88 women with mild to moderate depression recruited from a menopausal clinic in Ahvaz, Iran, and randomly assigned into two groups of EFT (n=44) and control for sham therapy (n=44). Women in the EFT group received two sessions of training and asked to continue EFT for 8 weeks, one time per day. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI2) completed by women before and after the intervention. The control group received training on sham acupressure points similar to the intervention group. Data collected using a demographic and BDI2. Women requested to complete the BDI2 before and after the intervention. The independent t-test, chi-square, and ANCOVA were used to analyze data.
Results
The mean depression score in the intervention group reduced from 20.93 ± 4.6 to 10.96 ± 4.38 in comparison to the control group that reduced from 19.18 ± 2.79 to 17.01 ± 6.05 after intervention (p=0.001). After the 8 week intervention, the frequency of moderate depression decreased from 56.8 to 9.35% in the intervention and from 50 to 29.5% in the control group. In total, 63.4 and 34.15% in the intervention and control groups were free of depression respectively after the intervention (p<0.001).
Conclusions
The results of this study showed that using EFT for 8 weeks could significantly reduce the mean score of depression in postmenopausal women. Using this method in public health centers for postmenopausal women is recommended.
Funding source: Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences
Acknowledgments
This was a master thesis of AM. The sponsor did not have any role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, as well as writing and submitting of the manuscript. We hereby thank all women who participated in this study and the staff of the menopausal counseling center.
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Research funding: All expenses of this research work were provided by Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences.
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Author contributions: AM, PA, and SA were involving in the conception. AM collected data. AM, PA, MD, and SA were responsible for data analyzing and interpretation. The manuscript was written by PA. All authors check and approved the content of the manuscript.
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Competing interests: None.
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