Title

Effect of dialectical behaviour therapy on depression & anxiety among elderly individuals

Authors

G. Ramani^1,* & K. Tamizharasi²

Affiliation

¹Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Kongunadu College of Nursing, Coimbatore, The Tamil Nadu DR.M.G.R Medical University, Chennai, India; ²Department of Paediatric Nursing, Sri Gokulam College of Nursing, Salem, The Tamil Nadu DR.M.G.R Medical University, Chennai, India; *Corresponding author

Email

G. Ramani - E-mail: ramani9411@gmail.com, jamunakumar2009@gmail.com
K. Tamizharasi - E-mail: sgcon2001@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2025; Revised August 31, 2025; Accepted August 31, 2025, Published August 31, 2025

Abstract

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic approach that can align a balance in a person's acceptance strategies with cognitive and behavioral change strategies. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-week Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program in reducing depression and anxiety among elderly individuals aged 65 years and above. Hence, a total of 40 participants were randomly assigned to either a DBT intervention group or a waitlist control group. Depression and anxiety levels were assessed before and after the intervention using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), respectively. Participants in the DBT group demonstrated significant reductions in both depression and anxiety scores compared to the control group (p < .05), with moderate to large effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.72 for depression; d = 0.69 for anxiety). Thus, data shows that DBT is an effective intervention for alleviating emotional distress in elderly populations and may be beneficial for integration into community-based mental health services for aging individuals.

Keywords

Dialectical behavior therapy, depression, anxiety, elderly

Citation

Ramani & Tamizharasi, Bioinformation 21(8): 2352-2355 (2025)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.