Comparison of the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment-Based Therapy (ACT) and Quality of Life therapy (QOLT) on self-destructive behaviors and emotional cognitive regulation in substance abusers

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment-Based Therapy and Quality of Life therapy (QOLT) on self-destructive behaviors and emotional cognitive regulation in substance abusers.

In this clinical trial, forty-five men with substance dependency aged over than 20 years who referred to the Mashhad Substance Abuse Clinics during 2019 and they were undergoing treatment selected through convenient sampling method. The selected men were randomly divided into 3 groups (two experimental groups and one control group). The experimental groups received Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) or quality of life skills training and the control group received no training. Data were collected using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and the Self-Destructive behaviors questionnaire. Data analyzed through descriptive statistics, covariance analysis and SPSS software.

The results showed that the therapeutic methods used in this study were effective on self-destructive behaviors and cognitive emotion regulation (P<0.01). Also, the results showed no significant difference between the two treatments. 

 According to the results of this study, Acceptance and Commitment-Based Therapy and Quality of Life therapy (QOLT) are effective on self-destructive behaviors and emotional cognitive regulation in substance abusers.