The Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy on the Perception of Aging, Self-Care Behaviors, and Pain Catastrophizing in Depressed Elderly

Introduction: Depression is a common mental disorder in the elderly and causes many complications to them. Therefore, this research was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on the perception of aging, self-care behaviors, and pain catastrophizing in depressed elderly. Methods: The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test-one-month follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population included all elderly women suffering from depression in Sadeghieh Nursing Home, Isfahan city, and 30 of them were selected by census sampling and randomly replaced in the test and control groups. Data collection tools included standard Beck depression questionnaires, perception of aging, elderly self-care and pain catastrophizing. The test group received compassion-focused therapy in eight 90-minute sessions. The data were analyzed by variance analysis with repeated measurements using SPSS-27 software. Results: In the post-test phase, the mean scores of aging perception and self-care in the test group increased more and pain catastrophizing decreased more than the control group. Therefore, compassion-focused therapy has a significant effect on the perception of aging, self-care behaviors, and pain catastrophizing in depressed elderly of Isfahan city (p≤0/05). However, this effect was not permanent in the follow-up stage of aging perception (p≥0/05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, compassion-focused therapy can be an effective intervention in improving the perception of aging, self-care behaviors and reducing pain catastrophizing in depressed elderly.