Abstract
Purpose: Depression causes dysfunction in various spheres of
individual and social life, which is now considered as the fourth-leading cause
of the global disease burden. Given that violence and aggression associated
with depression in the community cause serious damage to the family, the
prediction, early detection and effective treatment of aggressive and violent
behavior are essential. The present study compared the severity of aggression
before and after treatment with sertraline in patients with major depression.
Methods: This is an intervention type study and the study
population consisted of patients with depression and aggression. The sampling
included 23 eligible patients. Data were obtained by SCID-I, SCID-II, STAXI-II,
BDI-II and was also analyzed using SPSS 23 software.
Results: The results showed that depression, anger mood, desire
to verbally express anger, controlling anger and anger control before treatment
was reduced but the desire for physical expression of anger increased.
Conclusion: Obtained results in this research support the
effect of Sertraline on reduction of severity of depression, reduction of
severity of symptoms of aggression and anger (state of anger, anger feeling,
and the tendency to express anger verbally), increased controlling external
anger and significantly controlling internal anger. Hence, Sertraline can be
found effective in the treatment of patients with depression and aggressive
behaviors. Also Sertraline increases tend to cause physical representation of
anger, then this issue supports the increase in the euthanasia behavior in
primary days of treatment with SSRI that requires more assessments.