Adaptations of two Psychotherapeutic techniques in the Cultural dynamics of Postnatal Depressive Women attending Post-Antenatal Clinic in a Teaching Hospital in Awka Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the adaptation of two Psychotherapeutic techniques namely Meseron therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy in the cultural dynamics of postnatal depressive women attending a post-antenatal clinic in a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. We enrolled two hundred participants randomly selected among Igbo women from South-East Nigeria suffering from postnatal depression. MT and CBT were used as psychotherapeutic interventions to alleviate the mental health condition of the women. The treatment modalities were modified in line with the cultural context of the study, across three domains for MT and eight domains for CBT, ranging from the patients’ cultural factors in the Igbo communities. The study is a survey, adopting a between-subject design and the data was analysed with a one-way analysis of variance. The findings revealed that the cultural adaptations of Meseron therapy were more effective than cognitive behavioural therapy in the treatment of nursing mothers suffering from postnatal depression. It was recommended that psychotherapists and mental healthcare practitioners should adopt these approaches to treatment in relation to the cultural dynamics of their patients.