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Background & Aim: At recent three decades, management of chronic mental disorders has been a focus of attention in mental health systems. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of group psychodrama in reducing depression in inpatient women with chronic mental disorder. Method & Materials: In this semi-experimental study, thirty women with chronic mental disorders bedridden at Razi comprehensive psychiatric center(Tehran, Iran) were randomly assigned to two groups, namely intervention & control groups. Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) was administered to all participants and then a 12 session group psychodrama intervention program was carried out for the intervention group. Meanwhile routine treatments were continued for the control group. BDI was then re-administered for both groups. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using independent and Paired T tests, Kolmogroph-Smernoph, Chi-square, Leven and Covariance analysis(ANCOVA) tests.   Findings: After the intervention, the BDI mean score significantly reduced in the intervention group(p=0.000) but not in the control one. The two groups showed no difference regarding the mean BDI scores before the intervention but afterward the control group had a significantly higher score in this respect(p=0.000). The significant differences remained true after applying ANCOVA to control the effects of age and rate of depression(p=0.000) Conclusion: Psychodrama may be an effective intervention for reducing depression in patients with chronic mental disorders.

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Aim and Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of psychodrama on body mass index, self-esteem and cognitive emotion regulation in obese female children. Methods and Materials: This experimental study was conducted with experimental and control groups. A pretest and a posttest were performed and the process was followed up for 3 months. The sample was comprised of twenty four 10-12-years-old girl students who were obese with body mass index of more than 25 kg/m 2 in 2015. They were selected through cluster-random sampling from a school in the first district of Isfahan city, Iran. The mothers of both groups were trained about the principles of healthy feeding in 4 sessions. Psychodrama intervention was applied only in the experimental group during six 2-hour sessions of group therapy. The data collection tools were consisted of the body mass index scale and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures. Findings: The effects of psychodrama on body mass index and self-esteem of the test group were statistically significant (P < 0.01) but no significant difference was observed in cognitive emotion regulation variable (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the therapeutic intervention of psychodrama would be helpful to reduce weight in obese children and to increase their self-esteem.

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Aim and Background: The main component of nonverbal communication is recognition of face expressions of emotions, and defect in this ability is associated with weakness in social communication. Bipolar disorder is a kind of disorder that is characterized by this defect. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of psychodrama on emotional rehabilitation of patients with bipolar disorder. Methods and Materials: This experimental study was carried out through pre- and post-test by control group. Using purposeful sampling method, 20 subjects were selected who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder by the psychiatrist according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 th Edition (DSM-5). Then, subjects were randomly assigned to two groups; experimental and control. The experimental group received 8 sessions of psychodrama treatment. The scores of the emotional rehabilitation questionnaire of both groups were collected before and after the intervention and in the follow-up period of 6 months, and then were analyzed by repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings:  A significant increase in the scores of post-test and follow-up in comparison with that of pre-test in experimental group (F (2,36) = 49.87, P < 0.001, h 2 = 0.73). Also, the between-group results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (F (1,18) = 5.32, P < 0.050, h 2 = 0.58). Conclusions: It seems that psychodrama is effective in increasing the emotional rehabilitation of patients with bipolar disorder; so, it is recommended as an effective treatment for these patients.

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Background and aim: The problem of emotional regulation is one of the problems faced by students with dyslexia. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of psychodrama on emotion regulation of students with dyslexia. Method: This study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group design. The statistical population included all students with dyslexia who were studying in public schools of the five educational regions of Isfahan city during 2015-2016. Multistage random sampling was used for the selection of the sample. The Reading & Dyslexia Test (RDT) were administered to identify learning disabilities in the students and 30 students with dyslexia were selected and randomly assigned to experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The intervention for the experimental group included 12 sessions each lasted 25 minutes. In this study, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and Reading & Dyslexic Test (RDT) were used. The data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). Findings: The findings indicated that the psychodrama training program significantly influenced emotion regulation of students with dyslexia (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The results showed that psychodrama training program is effective in emotion regulation of students with dyslexia. So, students after receiving this approach, in addition to reducing negative emotions and improving the regulation of positive emotions also improved in other areas such as interpersonal and social behaviors. Therefore, focusing on emotional regulation skills as an important factor in the continuity of learning disorders can be useful in designing preventive interventions and reducing the incidence of psychological disorders.

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Aim and Background: Psychodrama is a type of emotional discharge that reopens a specific person's personality problem and presents aspects of his life and its comparison with cognitive-behavioral therapy can determine their effectiveness; Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral and Psychodrama therapy on the symptoms of externalized disorders in children aged 7 to 12 years.
Methods and Materials: The research method is quasi-experimental (quasi-experimental) studies with pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The sample group was available among 24 children who were registered at Ava Mehr Pasargad Counseling Center to diagnose the symptoms of externalized disorder and met the necessary criteria to participate in the study, 24 people were randomly selected. They were divided into two experimental groups and one control group. Cognitive-behavioral and Psychodrama were performed for the experimental groups, but the control group did not receive any special intervention. The research instruments included the Achenbach Child Behavior Inventory Questionnaire (parents' version). Analysis of covariance and Tukey post hoc test were used to analyze the data and examine the relationships between variables.  
Findings: The results showed that there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodrama therapy in the variables of aggressive behavior and law-breaking behavior in the post-test stage (P≥0.001) but there was a significant difference in the follow-up stage in the law-breaking behavior variable. .000.001) According to the effect size values for the variables of aggressive behavior and law-breaking behavior in cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodrama, it was found that the effectiveness of psychodrama is more than cognitive-behavioral therapy (P≤0.001).
Conclusions: It seems that cognitive-behavioral therapy is more useful than psychodrama in improving aggressive behaviors.

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Aim and Background: Separation anxiety disorder is one of the first and most common psychological disorders in children. Therefore, therapeutic interventions to reduce this disorder is important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy of psychodrama on reducing the symptoms of separation anxiety disorder in children 5 to 9 years.
Methods and Materials: The design of the present study was a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test with follow-up, with experimental and control groups. The statistical population in this study was all children aged 5 to 9 years with separation anxiety disorder in Zahedan in the academic year of 2019-2020. For select the sample, 30 children were selected using the two-stage cluster sampling method and randomly assignment into experimental and control groups. Experimental group, seven 90 minute sessions, group therapy of psychodrama and no intervention was performed on the control group. At the end of the educational-therapeutic sessions, the post-test was administered and after one month, both groups were re-evaluated. The instrument used in this study was anxiety the Spence children's anxiety scale (SCAS-P) and Disease Symptoms Parental Questionnaire (CSI-4). The research data were analyzed using SPSS 22 measurement analysis software test.
Findings: The analysis of the results showed that the symptoms of separation anxiety in the experimental group compared to the control group showed a significant decrease (P≤0.01).
Conclusions: Group therapy of psychodrama can be used to reduce the symptoms of separation anxiety in children aged 5-9 years in Zahedan and this therapeutic approach can be used for this population.