Abstract
Introduction: Depression can increase the likelihood of developing diabetes complications. People with depression may find it harder to deal with everyday tasks. Over time, managing diabetes can take its toll. Additionally, depression may increase vulnerability to and/or exacerbate existing cognitive deficits. The aim of this study was to evaluate effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on depression and cognitive flexibility among in diabetic patients.
Methods: This is quasi-experimental research with pre-test, post-test, follow-up and control group that was conducted in 2017 in Zahedan. This eight week ‘‘MBCT course was run during the 2017. All participants were diabetic patients. Statistical population consists of all diabetic patients who visited to health centers of Zahedan's hospitals and sampling was convenience that 24 diabetic patients were selected to participate in this study that were assign into experimental and control group randomly(n=12). All participants (in control and experiment group) were aged between 25 to 55 years old. The control group did not receive any intervention and just were taken pre-test and post-test and follow-up.Beck Depression Inventory – Second Edition and The Cognitive Flexibility Scale were used the data. Data was analyzed by mean and standard deviation, Wilks's lambda, Levene's test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, MANCOVA, Bonferroni's test were used by SPSS-20.
Results: Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable was significant (p<0.001) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy(MBCT) affected the cognitive flexibility and also their depression, also effects of it have remained stable after one month.
Conclusion: MBCT therefore appears to be an effective and cost-efficient non-pharmacological group program aimed at cognitive flexibility improved and depression prevention in diabetic patients.