A research synthesis of effective components of depression treatment to develop a web-based package

Abstract

Background and Aim: Treating depression as one of the most common mental disorders has always been a challenge. The aim of this study was to thematically analyze depression and find related topics in order to develop a web-based treatment package. In this research, depression and its treatment have been studied from different aspects. Methods: In order to achieve this qualitative research goal, research synthesis and thematic analysis techniques have been used. After analyzing related articles, 114 Persian and English articles indexed in reliable scientific databases were targeted. Results: The results of the study showed that depression treatment contains eighteen sub-themes which are classified into 4 main themes. Sub-themes such as “behavior modification and adjustment, reward, behavioral activation, improvement of sleep quality” were categorized as behavioral components of depression. Another major theme was the cognitive component, which included problem solving skill, changing inefficient schemas, reducing rumination, challenging negative beliefs, decision-making skill, reducing selfcriticism, fixing cognitive errors and mindfulness skill. Another main theme was related to the emotional component, which included three themes of strengthening of internal motivation, self-compassion and emotion regulation skill. Finally, the communication component was identified as the last main theme and included three components of empathy skill, effective communication skill and assertiveness skill. Conclusion: Based on the results of the thematic (theme) analysis that was done on 114 scientific research articles with the topic of depression, 4 main themes with 18 secondary primary themes were obtained to prepare the structure and content of depression intervention software.