Investigating the Effectiveness of Reminiscence Therapy on of Elderlies Depression and Optimism: An Experiment Study

Background and purpose: Depression in elderly can lead to significant problems which have detrimental effects on old people’s life; there is an obvious need for preventive interventions which are at once effective and affordable. The aim of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of positive reminiscence therapy on of elderly's depression and optimism.

Materials and methods: This research has experiment design study. The study design was pre post-test with the control group. The population were women of 60 and over in Tehran’s nursing homes, after investigating Inclusion and exclusion criteria, 27 women were chosen that finally from which; 10 women were selected as intervention group and 11 women were chosen as the control group from residents in one of Tehran’s nursing home. The intervention group received 8 sessions, 1 h per session and each week 2 sessions (totally 4 weeks) of reminiscence intervention. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Life Orientation Test (LOT) was done on 4^th session, 8th session and follow up (after one month) in both groups. Data were analyzed using SPSS V22 software.

Results: Differences between intervention and control group in age mean, duration of stay, a number of children and psychiatric examination weren't significant. Reminiscence therapy was significantly effective in reducing depression and enhancing optimism among elderly in the experimental group (p=0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the findings, the necessity of using positive reminiscence therapy for enhancing positive emotions in the elderly was emphasized.