A Comparative Efficacy of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Pharmacotherapy in Treatment of Major Depression among Parasuicidal Adolescents: A Randomized Clinical Trial at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba-Lagos, Nigeria

Samuel O. Ojuade D.Min., Ph.D., Executive Director of PsycheBalmConsult, Nigeria

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating disease that is characterized by depressed mood, diminished interest, impaired cognitive function and vegetative symptoms (Otte et al., 2016). The main objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of dialectical behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy in treatment of MDD among parasuicidal adolescents in a clinical trial at Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Cappa-Lagos, Nigeria. The sample size of 81 participants was selected at 80% power and 30% effect size using purposive sampling technique. The research used Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Suicide Behavior Questionnaire-revised (SBQ-R) and researcher generated socio-demographic questionnaire to collect data. The data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The results of the study showed that pharmacotherapy and DBT were efficacious in reducing MDD symptoms (p=0.0001). DiD estimator using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimator was employed to assess a declining trend over the two-time period depicting reduction in MDD scores mean of 0.6753. The DiD estimator shows insignificant reduction between pharmacotherapy and DBT, meaning that the two intervention approaches were equally significant with no significant difference (p=0.271). The null hypothesis that there would be no significant difference between adolescents treated of MDD and suicide behavior was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted (p=0.006). This implies that treatment of MDD among parasuicidal adolescents would reduce suicide behavior.

Keywords: pharmacotherapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), major depressive disorder (MDD), parasuicide behaviors, adolescents and efficacy.