Ego-strengthening hypnotherapy, negative emotional state, and suicidal thoughts in outpatients with depression

This research aimed to investigate the efficacy of ego-strengthening hypnotherapy in reducing negative emotional states and suicidal ideation among outpatients with depressive disorders in an Iranian sample. This was a randomized controlled trial featuring three phases: baseline, intervention, and follow-up, involving both an experimental group and a wait-list control group. The sample included 40 outpatients with major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, and unspecified depressive disorder, selected through random sampling for each group. In this study, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale - 21 Items (DASS-21;) and the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI;) assessments were utilized. The experimental group participated in 10 sessions of ego-strengthening hypnotherapy, conducted biweekly for 45 min each session. Analyses revealed that the experimental group experienced a significant decrease in negative emotional states (i.e. depression, anxiety, and stress) and suicidal ideations (i.e. wishes to die, passive suicidal thoughts, and active suicidal thoughts) in comparison to the wait-list control group during both the intervention and follow-up phases.