Effectiveness of Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Depression among Iranian Women around Menopause

Abstract: Menopause is the universal event that each woman will experience it if they survive into midlife. Although most women transition to menopause without experiencing psychological problems, some may develop a new onset of depression during this stage of life. The objective of this research was to study the effectiveness of group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on depressed women who are around menopause in regard to menopausal status. The study was conducted involving 44 women around menopause period who were placed randomly in the experimental and control groups. Participants ’ the experimental group was exposed to 16 sessions of group cognitive behavioral therapy based on Beck’s Cognitive Therapy for depression. The results revealed that depression decreased from the pre-test to post-test and follow-up in the experimental group F (1, 21) = 269.60, p=.001, f=2.34. These findings indicated that group cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in decreasing women’s depression around menopause over time and its effect is equal among premenopausal and perimenopausal women t (1, 20) =-1.46, p=.15