Background:Depression has a profound effect on quality of life (QoL) and is associated with rumination, hopelessness and social difficulties. It is important to explore novel intervention techniques that may reduce depression, and also improve rumination, hope and QoL.Aims:In this brief clinical report, we report the findings of two pilot randomized controlled trials examining the feasibility of a potentially important novel clinical technique (MEmory Specificity Training, MEST) on depression, social problem-solving (Study 1), rumination, hope and QoL (Study 2).Method:In Study 1, Iranian women with depression (n = 24) completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Means-Ends Problem-Solving test at baseline, post-training and 2-month follow-up. In Study 2, female students with moderate depression (n = 24) completed the Ruminative Response Scale, Adult Hope Scale and Short-Form Health Survey at baseline and post-training. Assessors were blind to group allocation. In both studies participants were randomly assigned to MEST or a non-active control group.Results:In both studies, MEST was found to be feasible and associated with low drop-out rates and high rates of self-reported patient and group facilitator satisfaction. There was preliminary evidence that MEST may bring about clinical benefit in terms of depression, social problem-solving (Study 1), QoL, rumination and hope (Study 2).Conclusions:MEST is a promising technique in the treatment of depression.

中文翻译：

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一份记录抑郁症新型治疗技术（记忆特异性训练，MEST）的简短临床报告：两项初步随机对照试验的总结

背景：抑郁症对生活质量 (QoL) 有深远的影响，并与沉思、绝望和社会困难有关。探索可以减少抑郁症并改善反刍、希望和生活质量的新型干预技术非常重要。目标：在这份简短的临床报告中，我们报告了两项初步随机对照试验的结果，这些试验检验了一项潜在重要的新型临床技术的可行性（记忆特异性训练，MEST）关于抑郁症、社会问题解决（研究 1）、反刍、希望和生活质量（研究 2）。方法：在研究 1 中，患有抑郁症的伊朗女性（n= 24) 在基线、培训后和 2 个月的随访中完成了贝克抑郁量表-II 和手段终结问题解决测试。在研究 2 中，患有中度抑郁症的女学生 (n= 24) 在基线和训练后完成了反刍反应量表、成人希望量表和短期健康调查。评估人员对分组分配视而不见。在这两项研究中，参与者被随机分配到 MEST 或非活动对照组。结果：在这两项研究中，MEST 被发现是可行的，并且与低辍学率和高自我报告的患者和小组促进者满意度相关。初步证据表明，MEST可能在抑郁症、社会问题解决（研究1）、生活质量、反刍和希望（研究2）方面带来临床益处。结论：MEST是一种很有前景的抑郁症治疗技术。