The effects of group psychodrama on the ruminative thinking style, dysfunctional attitudes, anxiety and depressive symptoms: a quasi-experimental study

Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of psychodrama on symptoms of ruminative thinking style and dysfunctional attitudes as well as the anxiety and depression. Subject or material and methods: This study included 16 adults including 8 individuals in the psychodrama and 8 individuals in the control group. A group therapy was conducted with the psychodrama group for 12 sessions during 6 weeks; the control group was observed without any intervention.Results: The psychodrama group scale scores were significantly lower in end tests in the intra-group analysis; there was not any difference in the control group.Discussion: With psychodramatic techniques, increasing and maintaining attention; reduce or replace ruminations by concretizing and be able to reprocess death, mourning, uncertain loss and trauma through staging; have the opportunity to experience functional attitudes in the sur-plus reality scene and develop functional beliefs and attitudes may have contributed to our results. Conclusions: Our results reveal that psychodrama techniques are useful in ruminative thinking and dysfunctional attitudes which play a role in the cognitive aspects of anxiety and depression.