The Effects of Hardiness Training on Suicide Ideation, Quality of Life and Plasma Levels of Lipoprotein (a) in Patients with Depressive Disorder

Patients with depressive disorder may suffer from suicide ideation. Furthermore, it has a reciprocal relationship with quality of life and any change in one of them can affect the other one. The high levels of Lipoprotein (a) have been seen in depressive persons. Hardiness training as one of the methods for improving the psychological capacities has been a good way to increase mental health by enabling a person to cope with problems. The present study was aimed at studying the effects of hardiness training (independent variable) on suicide ideation, quality of life and Plasma Levels of Lipoprotein (a) (dependent variables) in patients with depressive disorder. The sample consisted of 24 people chosen randomly and divided into two experimental and control groups. First subjects' suicide ideation (Beck Depression Inventory), quality of life (SF-36) and Plasma Levels of Lipoprotein (a) (Immunoturbidimetric method) was measured (pre-test). Then the experimental group was trained in a hardiness training program for 10 sessions with assignments, each session lasting 1 hour, while the control group did not receive any treatment. Finally, the dependent variables were measured again (post-test). Analysis of covariance was applied to analyze the data of pre-test and post-test. Results showed that there was a significant difference between the suicide ideation and the quality of life of the two groups. However, no significant difference was found between the plasma levels of lipoprotein (a) in the two groups of the study. According to the present study, training in hardiness can decrease suicide ideation and also increase quality of life. Therefore, it would be helpful to use the hardiness training program as an additional package for reducing the risk of suicide and increasing the quality of life among patients with depressive disorder.