Background and objective:  Depression is one of the common conditions among inpatients of psychiatric ward, Srinagarind hospital. Movement therapy is one of the treatment option for relieving stress and relaxation. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of movement therapy on depression severity among psychiatric patients.

Methods: This is a quasi-experimental research. Psychiatric inpatients with depression at Srinagarind  hospital, Khon Kaen university were randomly assigned to either a intervention or a control group. The therapy group received movement therapy for 30 minutes daily and the control group received usual care without movement therapy for a week. Demographic data were collected and the KKU–DI was assessed before and after participating the therapy. The outcome was the improvement in severity of the KKU-DI scores after the intervention. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the outcome.

Results: Fifty patients with depression participated in the study; 25 for each group. The majority of both groups were women (64%, 64%). The mean ages of the intervention and the control groups were 35.5+14.2 and 30.8+11.8 years. Based on the KKU-DI scores prior the therapy, most of the patients in the intervention group and the control group had severe depression (60% and 48%). After the movement therapy, the proportion of the patients in the intervention group had the KKU-DI scores decreased statistically significant more than the control group (60% and 24%, p<0.05,95%CI10.5, 61.5), indicated a better improvement in depressive symptom.

Conclusion: The result demonstrated the benefit of movement training program on depression scores. This program may be useful for patients with depression.