The effectiveness of group cognitive - behavioral psychotherapy on changing of irrational beliefs in male addicts

One of the most important strategies for treatment and preventing recurrence of addiction is group cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness cognitive–behavioral therapy on improving irrational beliefs in male addicts. In a semi-experimental study, 80individuals who had been treated in MMT therapy of bojnurd, were divided randomly into an experimental (40 subject) and a control (40 subject) groups. The experimental group underwent ten treatment sessions (one session per week, 90 min) with cognitive-behavioral approach while control group only receive routine treatment of MMT center. In this study, Jones irrational beliefs questionnaire form was used. Data were statistically analyzed using spss sofware16 and presented with chi-square tests, t-independent and paired t test with 95% confidence level. influential variables of two groups (age, education, age of onset of drug use, smoking, etc.) were similar. Irrational beliefs scores of both groups before the intervention were not significant, but showed significant level of difference after the intervention (p<0/0001). The overall mean pre-intervention score (112/95 ± 11/52) and post-intervention score of experimental group (82/78 ± 9 / 76) showed a meaningful decrease. (p<0/0001). Group cognitive - behavioral therapy is effective in reducing irrational beliefs of addicts and probably could change their positive attitude to drug abuse.