Psychodrama: Mechanisms, Applications, and Future Prospects in Treating Depression

Abstract: Being an alternative to commonly applied treatments for depression, psychodramas significance and values as a type of creative therapy are often underestimated by contemporary researchers and mental health professionals; in turn, psychodrama has been less investigated and developed over the past century. Aiming to address the gap, this paper conducted a literature review on the key mechanisms, current applications, and future prospects of psychodrama in treating depression. The research has concluded that both individual and group psychodrama are effective in treating depression either by itself or integrated with antidepressants or cognitive behavioral therapy. For psychodrama to be applied to a wider population, further development of this approach can focus on adjusting its features to host traditional psychodrama frameworks via online platforms; it is also suggested to integrate themes stemmed from positive psychology with the form of psychodrama in order to benefit the healthy population with a psychopathology-oriented approach as well.