The study of the relation between suicidal thoughts and religious belief in patients under methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) of Sari in 2013

Background and misuse of drugs is one of the global problems that can have deep and serious complications on person's physical and spiritual health, family life, economy, security and cultural development of the society. Misuse of drugs is one of the important factors dealing with suicide. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relation between suicide thoughts and religious belief in patients under methadone maintenance treatment of Sari. This study is descriptive cross-sectional. In this study, 123 male and female who referred to governmental and private addiction treatment centers with protective methadone were studied. The instruments of the study were suicide thought questionnaire, religious belief questionnaire and demographic information check list. The data were collected and analyzed with SPSS software and statistical tests. In this study, 17.9 percent of the samples had suicide thoughts. The mean score of religious practice was 2.6±.33. There was a significant correlation between religious belief with suicide thoughts and error frequencies (re-use of drugs) (r= -0.437; p==0.42). There was also a significant relationship between suicide thoughts and error frequencies (p=0.001). According to the results of this study, religious belief has an inhibitory role in suicide thoughts and error in methadone treatment. Therefore, reinforcing the religious principles and beliefs of the community, especially, for the youth is an effective step in preventing and reducing the tendency toward the misuse of the drugs.