Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

• Seyed Asghar Hosseini ¹
• Gholam Ali Ghasemi ²
• Mahbobeh Mardanshah ³

¹ MSc Student, Department of Corrective Exercise and Sport Injuries, School of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Corrective Exercise and Sport Injuries, School of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

³ MSc Student, Department of General Psychology, School of Humanities Sciences, Hamadan Science and Research Islamic Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hamadan, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Mood disorders, including depression, can affect the lives of many people around the world. This disease is so common that it is referred to as “Mental colds”. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of six weeks of massage therapy on quality of life and depression in depressed women.Materials and Methods: 20 female patients with depression that the Beck Depression Inventory scores above 18 were acquired, the depression scores of the two groups of massage therapy (10 patients with a mean age of 31.20 ± 7.61) and matched control group (10 patients, mean age, 27.20 ± 5.30) were included. For measuring depression and quality of life were the Beck Depression Questionnaire and Wisconsin Quality of Life Client Questionnaire. For data analysis SPSS, repeated measures ANOVA was used at the 0.05 level.Results: The results showed that the level of depression and quality of life in the post-test massage therapy group is significantly less than the pre-test. The intervention reduced level depression and quality of life scores (P < 0.05).Conclusion: The results of the present study seem to massage therapy is effective in reducing depression and quality of life. Thus, the findings support the positive impact of massage therapy on depressed patients.

Keywords

• Massage Therapy
• Depression
• Quality of Life
• Depressed women