Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research1735-906617620120922767767ENDepartment of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Community Based Nursing and ‎Midwifery Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz-IranDepartment of Psychiatric Nursing, Yasooj University of Medical Sciences, Yasouj-IranDepartment of Psychiatry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz-IranDepartment of Psychiatric Nursing, Yasooj University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz-Iran20120922<p>Background:</p> <p>&nbsp;Depression is the world&rsquo;s fourth most prevalent health problem which is &lrm;associated with substantial mortality, direct medical cost, diminished life quality, and &lrm;significant physical and psychosocial impairment. This study aimed to investigate the &lrm;effect of psycho-educational intervention on the life quality of major depressive patients.&lrm;</p> <p>Materials and Methods:</p> <p>&nbsp;Sixty patients who were willing and had met the required &lrm;criteria for participation were selected from hospitals in Shiraz city, Iran. So 30 of the &lrm;patients were assigned to the experimental group and 30 others to the control group. For &lrm;data collection, a two part questionnaire was developed, the first part consists of 13 items &lrm;related to general characteristics and the second part with 36 items on life quality were &lrm;used. The experimental group was divided into five subgroups of 6 patients. For each &lrm;group, six intervention sessions were scheduled. The control group did not receive the &lrm;intervention. The questionnaires were completed for all subjects in the experimental and &lrm;control groups before and 1 month after the end of psycho-educational intervention. &lrm;Tabulated data were analyzed using chi-square, independent and pair T-test.&lrm;</p> <p>Results:</p> <p>&nbsp;The results of the study indicated that psycho-educational intervention in &lrm;comparison with other available treatments proved to be more effective on eight domains &lrm;of life quality in the experimental group. A significant difference was observed for all the &lrm;domains (P &lt; 0.001).</p> <p>&nbsp;Conclusion:</p> <p>Psycho-educational intervention can be used as an &lrm;auxiliary treatment in improving life quality and decreasing depression in patients &lrm;suffering from major depressive disorder.&lrm;</p> <p>Key words:</p> <p>Depressive disorder, Iran, life quality, major</p>http://ijnmr.mui.ac.ir/index.php/ijnmr/article/view/767http://ijnmr.mui.ac.ir/index.php/ijnmr/article/download/767/577