The purpose of the current study was to examine the efficacy of cognitive defusion treatment on mental health variables(depressive symptoms, functional impairment, mental well-being), cognitive content variables(frequency and believability of negative...
The purpose of the current study was to examine the efficacy of cognitive defusion treatment on mental health variables(depressive symptoms, functional impairment, mental well-being), cognitive content variables(frequency and believability of negative automatic thoughts, emotional discomfort and believability of self-referential thoughts), and the process variables of acceptance and commitment therapy(experiential avoidance, rumination, decentering) among undergraduates with depressive symptoms. Forty two undergraduates who showed a score of at least 16 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: cognitive defusion(n=15), distraction(n=15), non-treatment control conditions(n=12). Two active treatment conditions, cognitive defusion and distraction conditions, consisted of three weekly 60 or 90 minute long sessions. All participants completed self-rating
scales of depressive symptoms, functional impairment, mental well-being, frequency and believability of negative automatic thoughts, emotional discomfort and believability of self-referential thoughts, experiential avoidance, rumination, and decentering at pre-treatment, three days, and two weeks after treatment completion. Participants in the cognitive defusion treatment condition showed significantly greater reductions in believability of negative automatic thoughts, experiential avoidance and rumination, and greater increase in decentering than those of the two comparison conditions. In addition, the cognitive defusion treatment showed a greater tendency to improve emotional discomfort and believability of self-referential thoughts, compared to the distribution treatment. These improvements were maintained at 2-week follow-up. However, changes in depressive symptoms, functional impairment, mental well-being, and frequency of negative automatic thoughts were not significantly different among the three conditions. In conclusion, these results suggest that cognitive defusion treatment is a promising intervention for improving treatment process variables and cognitive variables among undergraduates with depressive symptoms, although not effective in some variables. Lastly, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.