Sustained Remission from Drug Addiction among the Attendees of the Meetings of Anonymous Addicts and Rehabilitation Centersin Mashhad, Iran, During 2017

Addiction is one of the most complex diseases of the century that for it's treatment various methods have been proposed. In this regard, one of the non-pharmacological methods with a profound effect on drug withdrawal involves the participation of addicted individuals in a 12-step anonymous addiction recovery program. The purpose of this study was to compare the sustained remission from drug addiction among individuals taking part in an anonymous recovery program and those attending a rehabilitation center for drug withdrawal.

This descriptive study was conducted on 300 participants (150 individuals of the anonymous recovery program and 150 patients of the rehabilitation center) in Mashhad, Iran, using a random sampling technique. Data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of two parts, namely demographic information and information related to sustained remission from drug addiction in the attendees of the two groups.

The obtained results indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in term of withdrawal from drug abuse  (χ2 = 0.08; P < 0.001). Addiction resumption occurred in 40.7, 48.4, and 10.9% of cases in the first, second, and third months, respectively. Regarding addiction relapses, 42% and 70% of patients in the rehabilitation and anonymous groups failed to accomplish the recovery, respectively. Regarding sustained remission from drug addiction among the investigated subjects, 40% of the cases in the anonymous addict group and 51.6% of individuals in the rehabilitation canter could persistently withdraw from drug abuse for more than  6 and 3 months, respectively.  Accordingly, there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of sustained remission from drug addiction (χ2 = 0.08; P < 0.001).

On the basis of the obtained results, it can be concluded that attendance to anonymous addict meetings can be a useful strategy to continue the addiction withdrawal after the detoxification period.