Effectiveness of Buddhist Monks in Providing Cognitive Behavior Therapy

This research is to study the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy-CBT and Psychotherapy by trained buddhist monks. There are generally accepted that both cognitive and Buddhist concepts are related. This randomized controlled trial is to study the elderly participants who suffer major depressive disorder according to DSM-IV. The subjects will be divided into two groups. The experimental group will receive 12 sessions of CBT 2 times per week for 6 weeks in addition to usual treatment. The control group will receive treatment as usual and general conversation (non-CBT) with monks. Pretreatment factors (such as attachment style, interpersonal factors) of both therapist monks and patient participants will be studied.