Comparison the Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Drug Therapy and Their Combination Methods on Depression and Irrational Beliefs in Women with Postpartum Depression

Introduction: Postpartum depression is one of the most common postpartum mental disorders which usually associated with depression and irrational beliefs, so we should seek solutions to improve their psychological characteristics. The aim of research was comparison the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy, drug therapy and their combination methods on depression and irrational beliefs in women with postpartum depression. Methods: This study was a semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design. Research population was women with postpartum depression that referring to health and care centers of Mashhad city in 2018 year. 45 people selected by available sampling method and simple random method with lottery assigned to three groups of 15 people. The first group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes of dialectical behavior therapy, the second group received 200 mg Fluoxamine per day and the third group received a combination of both methods. Data collected with the questionnaires of depression and irrational beliefs and were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test methods. Results: The findings showed that there was no significant difference between groups in depression and irrational beliefs (p>0/05), but there was significant difference in the post-test stage (p<0/05). The combined method in compared with the dialectical behavior therapy and drug therapy led to significant reduce the depression, but there was no significant difference between the dialectical behavior therapy and drug therapy in reducing depression. Also, dialectical behavior therapy and combined in compared with drug therapy led to significant reduce the irrational beliefs, but there was no significant difference between the dialectical behavior therapy and combined in reducing irrational beliefs (p<0/05). Conclusions: Regarded to results to reduce depression of women with postpartum depression used from combined method and to reduce their irrational beliefs used from dialectical behavior therapy method.