Effectiveness of Group Schema Therapy in Metacognitive Beliefs and Methadone Dose Reduction in Men under Methadone Treatment

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of group schema therapy in metacognitive beliefs and methadone dose in men treated with methadone maintenance medication.
A quasi-experimental research design, including pre-test and post-test and control group was used for the conduct of this study. The statistical population of this study included all the men who had referred to the addiction treatment clinics of Isfahan city in Spring 2017 for addiction treatment. For sampling, one addiction treatment clinic was selected via convenience sampling method; then, 30 participants were selected from this center based on purposive sampling and entry criteria. The participants were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 10 weekly 90-minute sessions of schema therapy. Wells Metacognitions Questionnaire was administered to the participants before and after the treatment and methadone dose was also recorded before and after the treatment.
The obtained data were analyzed through multivariate covariance in SPSS23. The results showed that group schema therapy had a significant effect on 5 dimensions of metacognitive beliefs, i.e., positive beliefs about anxiety (p=0.000), negative beliefs about controllability of thoughts and concerns related to anxiety (p=0.000), cognitive unreliability (p=0.000), need for thought control (p=0.000), and cognitive self-awareness (p=0.000)); and methadone dose (p=0.000).
Group schema therapy is an effective method in adjusting metacognitive beliefs and decreasing methadone dose in the men under methadone treatment.