Background Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in Iranian women. They will experience a mental health problem like depression before, during or after treatment. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of group metacognitive therapy on depression, cognitive-emotional regulation, and meta-cognitive beliefs in women with breast cancer. Methods In this randomized controlled clinical trial, a total of 24 depressed patients with breast cancer were randomly allocated to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received meta-cognitive therapy in 8 weekly sessions, but the control group received treatment as usual. Beck Depressive Inventory, cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, and meta-cognitions questionnaire were completed before, after and one month after the intervention. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests. Results The mean score of depression in the experimental group was reduced from 21.6 ± 4.83 in the pre-test to 13.83 ± 8.12 in one-month follow-up (p = 0.16); however, there was no significant difference in the control group. The mean score of cognitive emotion regulation did not show a significant change in the two groups during the study and follow-up period. The mean score of meta-cognitive beliefs reached 68.75 ± 15.74 from 79.51 ± 10.72 in the experimental group during the follow-up period (p = 0.006); however, there was no significant difference in the control group in the score of metacognitive beliefs. Conclusion These findings support the efficacy of meta-cognitive therapy as a viable psychosocial intervention in depressed patients with breast cancer. Trial registration IRCT201606288473N5. Registered on: 05/09/2016 https://www.irct.ir/trial/8946.

BackgroundBreast cancer is one of the most common cancers in Iranian women. They will experience a mental health problem such as depression before, during or after treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of group metacognitive therapy on depression, cognitive emotional regulation, and meta-cognitive beliefs in women with breast cancer.Methodsin this randomized controlled clinical trial, a total of 24 depressed patients with breast cancer were randomly allocated to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received meta-cognitive therapy in 8 weekly sessions but control group received treatment as usual. Beck's Depression Inventory, cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, and meta-cognitions questionnaire were completed before, after and one month after intervention. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests.ResultsThe mean score of depression in experimental group was reduced from 21.6 ± 4.83 in the pre-test to 13.83 ± 8.12 in one month follow-up (P = 0.16) but there was no significant difference in control group. The mean score of cognitive emotion regulation did not show a significant change in the two groups during the study and follow up period. The mean score of meta-cognitive beliefs was reached 68.75 ± 15.74 from 79.51 ± 10.72 in the experimental group during the follow-up period (P = 0.006), but there was no significant difference in control group in the score of metacognitive beliefs.ConclusionThese findings support the efficacy of meta-cognitive therapy as a viable psychosocial intervention in depressed patients with breast cancer.Trial registrationIRCT201606288473N5. Registered on: 05/09/2016https://www.irct.ir/trial/8946.