Journal of Applied Psychological Research

Effectiveness of Combined Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Improving Symptoms of Depression, Rumination and Emotion Regulation in People with Major Depressive Disorder) Quasi-Experimental Study (

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Azam sadat Madani 1
leila heydarinasab 2
Hojjatollah Farahani 3
reza rostami 4

1 clinical psychology, Humanistic Faculty, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

2 Clinical Psychology, Humanistic Faculty, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of Health Psychology, faculty of psychology and Educational Science, University of Tehran

https://doi.org/10.22059/japr.2026.380013.644972
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the combination of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and transcranial direct current stimulation on reducing depressive symptoms, improving emotion regulation and rumination in people with major depressive disorder. The research method was practical and quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. The statistical population included all the people aged 18 to 65 who visited the Atieh Clinic from March 2023 to March 2024; Among them, 8 people (6 women and 2 men) were selected by available sampling method. The research tools included Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRS). The intervention consisted of 12 30-minutes sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation, followed by 45 minutes of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. The resulting data were analyzed with SPSS 26 software and through Repeated Measures ANOVA. The results showed that the combination of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and transcranial direct current stimulation has a significant effect in reducing depression (F=45.80, P=0.001), improving emotion regulation (F=16.43, P=0.006) and rumination (F=22.20, P=0.003) in people with major depression.Based on the findings, the combination of two treatments can be used as an effective intervention in reducing the symptoms of major depressive disorder and its associated symptoms.

Keywords

"Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy"
" Major depressive disorder"
"Transcranial direct current stimulation"
Journal of Applied Psychological Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 28 July 2026

  • Receive Date 01 August 2024
  • Revise Date 26 August 2024
  • Accept Date 02 October 2024
  • First Publish Date 28 July 2026
  • Publish Date 28 July 2026