ABSTRACT

 Backgroun and Aim: Depression is a common psychiatric disorder which has a great impact on human life. Data published by scientific sources suggest that about one hundred million cases are diagnosed annually. Depression comprises about 35 to 45% of all mental disorders in Iran. Unfortunately, this figure is rising day by day and it is necessary to present new ways and modern methods for treatment and prevention of this psychiatric disorder. One of the non medicinal methods of treatment is music therapy which seems to be a safe and effective therapeutic method. Reading the Koran with a nice voice can be regarded as a kind of agreeable gnostic music. The main purpose of this research was to determine the effect of the Koran reciting on depression.

 Materials and Methods: This study was a semi-experimental one and included all the depressed patients who had been hospitalized in the psychiatry department of Rafsanjan Moradi center. The sampling time period was one year. The patients were divided into two groups randomly, (30 people in the experimental and 30 in the control group). The selection of the subjects were based on the psychiatrist`s diagnosis, Beck`s depression test and condition of the patients. The questionnaires were filled out for the case group. Recitation of Yousof Verse of the Koran by Abdolbaset, was transmitted for the case group, for 15 minutes every other day for 7 sessions. At the end of the first two weeks of hospitalization, both of the groups were retested by another questionnaire and the results were analyzed by paired t- test and T-students by EPI 6.

 Results: The result of this research showed that the Koran reciting had a beneficial effect on the depressed patients (p<0/0001). In our study the patients who expressed a strong belief in the Koran had greater differences in median depression scores before and after this kind of therapy.

 Conclusion: According to the results of this research and because of the rhythmic agreeable intonation of the Koran as a gnostic music and its miracle aspect, we can use the Koran tone as a non medicinal method of therapy in the treatment of depressed patients.

  Key words: The Koran reciting, Depression, Psychiatry ward Moradi hospital, Rafsanjan