Effectivene ss of group therapy based on detached mindfulness techniques in reducing drug craving and the likelihood of drug use in substance‎-dependent individuals

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectivene­­ss of group therapy based on detached mindfulness techniques (DM) ­­­i­­­n reducing drug craving and the likelihood of drug use in substance‎-dependent individuals. In a clinical trial 24 male subjects were selected through purposive sampling from Yavaran Omid Addiction Treatment Clinic in Mashhad, Iran in 2013. Subjects were assigned to experimental and control groups randomly. The experimental group attended group therapy sessions (six one-hour sessions) based on DM techniques and the control group continued the common group therapy program of the clinic. Before and after the treatment, both groups completed the questionnaires including Relapse Prediction Scale, Meta-Cognitive Questionnaire-30, Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories, and also the experimental group subjects completed the Clinical Global Improvement (CGI) Scale as well as the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) in the post-treatment. Data analysis was carried out using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA), t-test by SPSS-19. The results of MANCOVA indicated that there was no significant relationship between the two groups in post-test (P>0.05), but the results of t-test indicated a significant anxiety reduction among the subjects of the experimental group (P=0.03). Also, improvement percentages showed that the subjects of the experimental group improved more than the subjects of the control group. Additionally, the scores obtained from CGI and CSQ demonstrated that subjects in the experimental group were pleased with the method of treatment and reported highly desirable states after the treatment. It seems that the group therapy based on detached mindfulness techniques was more effective for reducing drug craving and the likelihood of drug use in substance‎-dependent individuals.