Effectiveness of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy with and Without Computer-based Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Response Inhibition in Methamphetamine Abusers

Despite extensive evidence on cognitive deficits and difficulty in emotion regulation related to substance abuse, especially methamphetamine abuse, a few well-organized programs could have improved cognitive abilities and emotion regulation in drug users.

The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm therapy (IPSRT) alone and combined with Cognitive Rehabilitation therapy (CRT) on inhibitory response and emotion dysregulation in people with methamphetamine use disorder.

The current quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and follow-up design included two intervention groups. Forty methamphetamine abusers were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria and assigned randomly to the IPSRT (n = 20) and IPSRT + CRT (n = 20) groups. The first group received IPSRT in 12 sessions, two 60 min sessions per week. The second group received IPSRT and 16 sessions of CRT. Subjects were assessed three times at pre-intervention, immediately after the intervention, and four weeks after the intervention. The Go/No-Go test (a neuro-cognitive task) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-36) was used to gather the data. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and mixed repeated ANOVA.

The results indicated that the two interventions had significant long-term effects on increasing the inhibitory response and decreasing emotion dysregulation. In addition, IPSRT with CRT was more effective than IPSRT alone in promoting executive functions and decreasing emotion dysregulation.

The findings of this study provide evidence that adding CRT as an adjunct intervention to psychological interventions such as IPSRT can improve emotional and cognitive performance. Therefore, a combination of psychological interventions with CRT can be considered a useful intervention in addiction treatment centers.