Comparing the effectiveness of Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) with Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) on Self-criticizing of postgraduate students

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Master's degree, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran.

2 Department of Psychology, Gonabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gonabad, Iran. (Corresponding Author)

Abstract

Introduction: Although this is obvious that we can decrease self-criticizing by psychotherapy, the question is “is there any significant difference between the effectiveness of different interventions? The aim of this study was to compare effectiveness of Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) and Compassion-Focused Therapy on self-Criticizing.
Methods: The method was quasi-experimental, performed with control group and placebo group and also with follow-up measurement. From Qom post-graduate students of psychology in the academic year 2020-21, 60 students who had higher scores at The Gilbert’s Forms of Self-Criticizing and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS), were randomly assigned for the intervention in four groups of 15: Compassion-Focused Therapy, Intensive Short-term Dynamic psychotherapy, placebo, and control. The FSCRS was used to measure the data and the data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 22 software by covariance test and Bonferroni post hoc test.
Results: The results of covariance test showed that there is a significant difference between groups (F = 150.11; p < 0.05). Bonferroni post hoc test showed that there was no significant difference between intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy in Self-Criticizing scores (MD = -2.17;  p> 0.05), although both were significantly less than placebo and control groups (p < 0.05). After 3 months, a follow-up showed that ISTDP is significantly better than Compassion-Focused Therapy in reducing self-criticism (MD= -5.96; p<0.05).
Conclusion: Both ISTDP and CFT are significantly effective for reducing self-criticizing but implementing ISTDP can be more effective in the long-term.

Keywords

medical journal of mashhad university of medical sciences
Volume 67, Issue 1
March and April 2024

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