Effect of meta-cognitive therapy on patients of depression: A case series from India

Abstract

Background Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) for depression aims at targeting attentional control, rumination, worry, and metacognitive beliefs of individuals. Aim The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of meta-cognitive therapy (MCT) in the treatment of patients with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Methods Five patients diagnosed as having major depressive disorder were recruited for the study. Each patient received 10 sessions of MCT up to 1hour each at a frequency of once per week. All patients were assessed at baseline, which was followed by 10 weekly sessions of MCT with post-intervention assessment and follow-up assessments at 1-month post-treatment. Primary outcome measures were the reduction in symptoms of depression, worry, and rumination. Outcomes were assessed via self-report using structured psychological tests. Data analysis Data was analyzed using individual frequency comparisons where measures of differences were obtained within each phase of assessment. Pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up measures were compared along with identification of within phase differences. Meticulous analysis was also performed using measures of qualitative analysis. For this purpose, following measures were used: homework assignment analysis, within session feedbacks, change in nature of meta-cognitive beliefs, change in executive control of attention to negative thoughts, changes in beliefs related to threat monitoring, analysis of factors leading to fluctuation in symptoms and the nature of coping skills. Results Improvements were observed between pre- and post-analyses of all primary outcome variables. In addition, the phenomenology of change in symptomatology has been explained in the light of various qualitative descriptions.