Effect of Metacognitive Therapy on Depression and Post Traumatic Growth in Hemodialysis Patients

Introduction: Dialysis is a stressful process and causes depression in more than half of patients under hemodialysis. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effect of metacognitive therapy on depression and post-traumatic growth of patients under hemodialysis. Methods: The present study was a clinical trial with a pre-test and post-test and a three-month follow-up. This study was conducted on 36 patients (18 in each of the control and intervention groups) referred to Imam Ali (AS) and Shahid Rajaei Hospital in Karaj city in 2020. In this study, patients were included in the study by using the convenience sampling method with random assignment. For the intervention group, eight sessions 60-minute of metacognitive therapy were held individually and face-to-face in the wards of dialysis in the two hospitals. Beck depression questionnaire and post-traumatic growth questionnaire were used to collect data in this study. Then the data were analyzed using the covariance analysis method in SPSS version 23 with a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: The results of univariate covariance analysis showed that there are significant differences between the intervention and control groups in the post-test and follow-up stages (p<0.001) in the intervention group in terms of reducing depression symptoms (F=342.17) and in growth after an accident (F=267.44) in the post-test stage, there are significant differences, which were not observed in the control group. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, metacognitive therapy using techniques such as postponing worry, challenging beliefs related to risk, and stopping the inhibition of avoidance behaviors, has good clinical efficacy in improving depression symptoms and post-traumatic growth in patients under hemodialysis.  In addition, it is suggested to carry out wider metacognitive therapy studies as an effective intervention method to improve depression and post-traumatic growth of patients under hemodialysis.