The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Anxiety Thoughts in Substance-Dependent Males

Males with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) lack a favorable situation concerning cognitions, emotions, and anxiety, and overall emotions management. Because of the important role that anxiety plays in SUDs, it negatively affects the personal and biopsychosocial health and performance, and quality of life of patients. Individuals with SUDs are relieved by consuming illegal drugs to cope with unbearable emotions. Mindfulness–Cased Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy (MBCBT) is among the most effective and useful approaches to assist individuals with SUDs. Mindfulness focuses on acquiring the necessary coping skills to manage high–risk situations and treating psychological disorders. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effects of MBCBT on Emotion Regulation (ER) and anxiety thoughts in males with SUDs.

This was a quasi–experimental study with pretest–posttest–follow–up (1 month) and a control group design. The statistical population of this study was 98 males with SUDs hospitalized in Ghasedak Omid Nareng SUD treatment center in Karaj City, Iran, in 2019. Of them, 54 eligible volunteers were selected and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control (n=27/group). The inclusion criteria of the study were literacy; obtaining a score ≥33 on the Anxiety Thoughts Inventory (Wells, 1994); the age range of 25–45 years; no specific biopsychological illnesses; receiving a diagnosis of SUDs, and substance use for at least one year. The exclusion criteria of the study included generating biopsychological illnesses during the study, absence from >2 sessions, and participation in other interventions. The research instruments consisted of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2001), Anxious Thoughts Inventory (Wells, 1994), and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM–5, Clinical Version (SCID–5–CV) (First et al., 2016). MBCBT (Kabat–Zayn, 1992) was used to perform the intervention in the experimental group for eight 90–minute weekly sessions. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, & standard deviation) and inferential statistics, including repeated–measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS. The significance level of the tests was considered 0.05.

The present study results indicated that the mean changes of ER and anxiety thoughts were significant over time (p<0.001). Group effect and group * time interaction effect were also significant for the mentioned variables (p<0.001). Furthermore, the mean pretest scores of ER in the experimental group were significantly different from those of the posttest stages (p=0.022) as well as pretest and follow–up steps (p<0.001). The mean scores of anxiety thoughts in the experimental group were significantly different in pretest and posttest stages (p<0.001) as well as pretest and follow–up steps (p<0.001). The results also suggested the stability of the effect of the intervention on ER and anxiety thoughts in the follow–up stage (p=0.038 and p=0.026, respectively). Considering the Eta–squared value, 87.3% of the changes in ER were due to the effect of MBCBT. Considering the Eta–squared value, 91.2% of the changes in anxiety thoughts were due to the effect of MBCBT.

Based on the collected results, MBCBT can improve ER and reduce anxiety thoughts in men with SUDs.