Prediction of Drug Use Tendency Based on Psychological Loneliness and Cognitive Emotion Regulation among Addicts under Abstinence

The aim of the current study was to predict drug use tendency based on psychological loneliness and cognitive emotion regulation in patients recovering from drug addiction.
The current study is a descriptive correlational research. The sample size contained 120 addicts under recovery from drug addiction who were selected as the sample units via convenience sampling method. Farjad drugs use tendency questionnaire (2006), Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona's UCLA Loneliness Scale (1980), and Garnefski's Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (2001) were used to measure the variables.
The results showed that psychological loneliness and obsessive thinking (rumination) have a significant positive relationship with drug use tendency. However, cognitive emotion regulation was revealed to hold a significant negative relationship with drug use tendency while there was no relationship between self-blame and drug use tendency. Psychological loneliness was revealed to be the strongest predictor of drug use tendency.
These findings have important implications in the pathology of drug abuse. Thus, clinical technicians can stop the incidence of psychological loneliness by providing appropriate advice and consultation and can embark on the treatment of drug abuse by teaching cognitive regulation strategies.