the effect of psycho-educational intervention on the life quality of ‎major depressive patients referred to hospitals affiliated to shiraz ‎university of medical sciences in shiraz-iran

background:  depression is the world’s fourth most prevalent health problem which is ‎associated with substantial mortality, direct medical cost, diminished life quality, and ‎significant physical and psychosocial impairment. this study aimed to investigate the ‎effect of psycho-educational intervention on the life quality of major depressive patients.‎ materials and methods:  sixty patients who were willing and had met the required ‎criteria for participation were selected from hospitals in shiraz city, iran. so 30 of the ‎patients were assigned to the experimental group and 30 others to the control group. for ‎data collection, a two part questionnaire was developed, the first part consists of 13 items ‎related to general characteristics and the second part with 36 items on life quality were ‎used. the experimental group was divided into five subgroups of 6 patients. for each ‎group, six intervention sessions were scheduled. the control group did not receive the ‎intervention. the questionnaires were completed for all subjects in the experimental and ‎control groups before and 1 month after the end of psycho-educational intervention. ‎tabulated data were analyzed using chi-square, independent and pair t-test.‎ results:  the results of the study indicated that psycho-educational intervention in ‎comparison with other available treatments proved to be more effective on eight domains ‎of life quality in the experimental group. a significant difference was observed for all the ‎domains (p < 0.001).  conclusion: psycho-educational intervention can be used as an ‎auxiliary treatment in improving life quality and decreasing depression in patients ‎suffering from major depressive disorder.‎