Object Relations and Vulnerability to Substance Abuse Relapse among Addicts Visiting Narcotics Anonymous Centers in Qom City, 2018

Substance abuse is a chronic disorder that has been a major social problem in most countries in recent decades. This study aimed to investigate the object relations and vulnerability to substance abuse relapse among addicts visiting Narcotics Anonymous Centers.

In a cross-sectional study, 385 addicts who visited Narcotics Anonymous Centers in Qom city were entered. A demographic questionnaire, Timeline Followback Interview, and Bell Object Relations Inventory were used to gather the required data and SPSS-21 was used to analyze the data.

In general, 61.5 and 92.2 percent of participants were married and employed, respectively. There was a significant positive relationship between subscales of alienation, insecure attachment, egocentricity (p < 0.001), and vulnerability to substance relapse.

According to findings, it seems that patterns of relation with initial objects and damages incurred by failure in objects-driven need expressions may have deep effects on people’s future life trajectories, mainly substance abuse and its relapse.