Treatment of Depressive Symptoms Using the New Approach of Religion-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Systematic Review

Background and purpose: Depression is a psychiatric disorder that causes major disabilities and has negative effects on the quality of life of people all over the world. In recent years, non-pharmacological treatments that may improve depression have received much attention. The purpose of this research was to systematically review primary experimental studies on the effectiveness of religion-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treatment of depression symptoms. Materials and methods: This systematic review was carried out using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The search was performed in Cochrane library, PubMed, Web of Science, EMbase, Magiran SID, International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), and Clinicaltrials.gov using the following keywords: depression, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and religion-based. The search was limited to articles published in Farsi and English until 2022. We studied articles that investigated the effectiveness of religion-based cognitive-behavioral therapy compared to no intervention or conventional cognitive-behavioral therapy in improving depressive symptoms. Bias assessment of experimental and semi-experimental studies was done by RoB 2 and ROBINS-I scales, respectively. Results: In the initial search, 1037 articles were found. Considering inclusion criteria and qualitative evaluation of the articles, finally 20 studies were selected. A total of 1682 samples were studied in these articles. The majority of samples were female patients, and major depressive disorder and depressive mood were the most common disorders. All studies indicated the effectiveness of religion-based CBT in reducing depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Further experimental studies with larger sample size are needed to investigate the role of gender and different types of depression on the effectiveness of religion-based CBT in reducing the severity of depression.