Effect of religious coping skills training with group cognitive -behavioral therapy for treatment of depression

Depression is a medical illness, affecting millions of Americans each year. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be an effective psychotherapeutic intervention that brings overall improvement for the individuals, their families and society as a whole. The effectiveness of including two types of coping skills training with CBT in a group setting was examined in this study. Basic coping skills (BCS) are commonly included along with CBT. Less common is the use of religious coping skills (RCS) that utilize the individual's religious beliefs and practices. Thus, RCS + CBT and BCS + CBT constituted the two conditions of this study. The RCS + CBT condition utilized a curriculum encouraging the identification and utilization of RCS in coping strategies with a group of participants diagnosed with depression. The BCS + CBT condition encouraged the identification and utilization of BCS without the inclusion of religious beliefs and practices. Both conditions prompted significant reductions in depression as measured by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), which was expected. The lower posttest depression scores on the HDRS were statistically significant in the RCS condition (although the actual difference was very small). However, there were no differences between the two conditions on the BDI-II.