EFFECTS OF USING MULTISENSORY POSITIVE MEMORY STIMULATION METHOD ON DEPRESSION IN PEOPLE WITH MILD DEPRESSION

Abstract

                Objective: To compare multiple positive memory stimulation therapy (M-PMS) and psychoeducation in people with mild depression.

                Methods: This study was a quasi-experiment and a pretest-posttest control group design. The participants were sixty people with mild depression, which were assessed by the 9Q questionnaire (i.e., scores of 7-12). This research was conducted in Ubon Ratchathani province. Participants were recruited by using a random sampling and divided into two groups, each group consisted of 30 people. The intervention group received the M-PMS and the control group received a psychoeducation. Three people were terminated from this study, one person from the M-PMS group and two people from the control group because they were infected with COVID-19 and admitted to the hospital. The measuring instruments were the Beck Depression Inventory-II and activities of Depression Task (DT). Data were analyzed using chi-square and t-test.

                Results: The M-PMS is individual therapy at home and follow were conducted and delivered by an internet-based platform. It's been practiced with papers and computers. The results showed that after trial, the depression scores in the M-PMS group was significantly lower than the control group (t = -2.76, p < .01). The Comparison before and after trials found that both groups a significant reduction in depression scores (M-PMS: t = 8.09, p < .01; Psychoeducation: t = -2.05, p < .01). The M-PMS group had significantly higher of DT response accuracy score than the control group (t = 3.38, p < .10). The comparison before and after trials found that the M-PMS group significantly gained a higher score for response accuracy after trial in relative to before trial (t = -5.43, p < .01). The control group showed no different scores between before and after the intervention (t = -2.05, p > .01).

                Conclusion: The M-PMS therapy can be regarded as another promising way to treat people with mild depression. It's also able to increase positive WM processing and reduce negative WM processing.