The Effectiveness of Psychological Interventions in Addiction Relapse Prevention: A Meta-Analysis

Different studies have been carried out on the effectiveness of psychological therapies in the treatment of addiction and reduction of its long-term complications. This study aimed to aggregate and combine the results of previous studies and to estimate the effectiveness of these therapies in the relapse prevention of drug addiction through meta-analysis method. This meta-analysis was conducted on the published articles in the databases of Sid, Magiran, and Irandoc. After searching, the screening and assessment of the quality of articles were conducted and the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied. In the initial search, the number of 4292 articles was extracted. After the removal of duplicates and evaluation of the titles and abstracts, 31 articles were selected. Then, the full texts of articles were reviewed and 19 articles were finally recognized eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The statistical analysis of the obtained data was carried out using STATA (Version 11). Pooled RD extracted from results and Metan command were used to analyze the data. The meta-analysis conducted on studies indicates the significant effectiveness of psychological-based therapy in addiction relapse prevention. Regarding the effectiveness of psychological-based therapies in addiction relapse prevention, policy-makers should pay more attention to this issue and provide the foundation for the application of exercises by providing the necessary training to psychologists of addiction treatment centers.