An Affect Regulation Training (ART) Based Treatment on Psychological Distress and Prevention of Drug Use Relapse in Individuals with Methamphetamine Use Disorder

Abstract

The ability to manage emotions makes a person use appropriate coping strategies in situations where the risk of drug use is high. The main difference between ART and other treatments is that since its development, ART has focused on increasing emotion regulation abilities as a strategy to improve mental health and has shown that deficits in emotion regulation skills are present in most disorders. The study aimed to develop a treatment plan based on emotion regulation training and determine its effectiveness in treating methamphetamine addiction and mental despair caused by it. Materials and Methods: In this research, the statistical population consists of all patients suffering from methamphetamine use disorder who referred to short-term residential centers in Tabriz city in 2022 The participants in the present study were selected by purposive sampling and were randomly placed in experimental and control groups. In each group, 20 people were studied, and a total of 40 people were studied. The method of conducting the present research was that first, the necessary arrangements were made with one of the short-term residential centers for drug addicts in Tabriz city, and the patients living there were selected and studied in a targeted manner. In this regard, by conducting a short neuro-psychiatric interview and asking questions related to entry and exit criteria and Goldberg's mental health questionnaire, suitable people were selected for treatment. Multivariate covariance analysis was used to extract and analyze the data. Results: The results showed that the treatment based on emotion regulation training reduced the relapse of consumption (F=19.266, dF=1 and 37, P=0.001), reducing the level of psychological despair (F=28.624, dF=1 and 37, P=0.001), reducing the amount of physical complaints (28.215, dF=1 and 37, P=0.001), reducing the amount of anxiety (F=27.529, dF=1 and 37, P=0.001), reducing the amount of social dysfunction (F=24.167, dF=1 and 37, P=0.001) and depression (F=31.342, dF=1 and 37, P=0.001) ) patients suffering from methamphetamine use disorder is significantly effective.