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A brief clinical report documenting a novel therapeutic technique (MEmory Specificity Training, MEST) for depression: a summary of two pilot randomized controlled trials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

Mahsa Sadat Zia ,
Elham Afkhami ,
Hamid Taher Neshat-Doost ,
Mahgol Tavakoli ,
Hossein Ali Mehrabi Kooshki  and
Laura Jobson
Mahsa Sadat Zia
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Elham Afkhami
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Hamid Taher Neshat-Doost*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Mahgol Tavakoli
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Hossein Ali Mehrabi Kooshki
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Laura Jobson
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background:

Depression has a profound effect on quality of life (QoL) and is associated with rumination, hopelessness and social difficulties. It is important to explore novel intervention techniques that may reduce depression, and also improve rumination, hope and QoL.

Aims:

In this brief clinical report, we report the findings of two pilot randomized controlled trials examining the feasibility of a potentially important novel clinical technique (MEmory Specificity Training, MEST) on depression, social problem-solving (Study 1), rumination, hope and QoL (Study 2).

Method:

In Study 1, Iranian women with depression (n = 24) completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Means-Ends Problem-Solving test at baseline, post-training and 2-month follow-up. In Study 2, female students with moderate depression (n = 24) completed the Ruminative Response Scale, Adult Hope Scale and Short-Form Health Survey at baseline and post-training. Assessors were blind to group allocation. In both studies participants were randomly assigned to MEST or a non-active control group.

Results:

In both studies, MEST was found to be feasible and associated with low drop-out rates and high rates of self-reported patient and group facilitator satisfaction. There was preliminary evidence that MEST may bring about clinical benefit in terms of depression, social problem-solving (Study 1), QoL, rumination and hope (Study 2).

Conclusions:

MEST is a promising technique in the treatment of depression.

Keywords

hopeMEmory Specificity Trainingquality of liferuminationsocial problem-solving
Type
Brief Clinical Report
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 118 - 123
Copyright
© British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2020

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Footnotes

‡

Joint first authors

References

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