The effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts in women with vitiligo

Background and Aim: Vitiligo is a depigmenting skin disorder, which has a great impact on the psyches of patients. The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of compassion-based treatment on anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation of women with vitiligo. Methods: This study was designed as a pre-test and post-test semi-experimental with a one-month follow-up and control group. Thirty patients of all vitiligo women (n=80) referring to Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center (SDLRC) during 2016-2017 (n=80) were selected for this study and randomized in 2 groups: all participants were assessed for anxiety and depression using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Zigmond and Smith (1983), suicidal through Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS), (1997) before intervention, at the end and one month after intervention. The experimental group attended in 8 consecutive 60-minute session group - based compassion - focused therapy (CFT, Gilbert and Neff therapeutic Package 2009) biweekly. Control group did not receive any intervention until the end of the follow-up phase. Repeated measure analysis of variance was used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that compassion-focused therapy was effective on anxiety, depression, suicide ideation compared to control group. Conclusion: According to the results of this research, compassion-based therapy has been effective in reducing anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.