Efficacy of Psycho-Spiritual Meaning Intervention (PSMI) on Depression and Suicide Ideation of Young Adults in Kerala, India

Suicide is a public health problem and the second leading cause of death among adolescents and youth. There are 800,000 people dying every year. Most of the young who commit suicide have a history of psychological problems of mood disorder, substance abuse or dependence. Personal and interpersonal problems lead to depression and suicide ideation among young adults. The purpose of this study was to develop and implement an adjunct therapeutic intervention for young adults having depression and suicide ideation. The researcher developed a Psycho-Spiritual Meaning Intervention (PSMI) integrating theories of cognitive, mindfulness and meaning management and coined a name as “LeHo-FiHo”, an acronym for leaving home to find home an inward journey of transformation and renewal. Psychospiritual intervention is aimed to reduce depression and suicide ideation of young adults who are under pharmacotherapy. This study used mixed research method especially sequential exploratory design. This study was conducted in two phases: the first phase was the development of the intervention and the second phase was the experimental validation of the intervention. This intervention was subjected to expert validation. The result of the study shows a significant decrease in depression and suicide ideation among the young adults. The statistical analysis was done by using mean scores, MANOVA, paired sample test and Cohen's d. The pretest and post-test scores of the experimental group indicated significant differences (p=.001) at 0.05 level in the paired sample test and Cohens'd test confirmed large effect of the intervention program. The result reveled that PSMI was effective in reducing depression and suicide ideation of young adults.