Pain Perception, Resilience, Failure Tolerance and Aggression of Women and Men Treated with Methadone in Tehran, Iran

Research evidence confirms physiological and psychological differences in men and women with substance abuse. In this regard, in the present study with the aim of examining gender differences in the treatment of drug abuse, in the psychological dimension, pain perception, resilience, failure tolerance and aggression of in-treatment women and men who were compared with methadone maintenance program.

In a descriptive study with causal-comparative method among people referring to addiction treatment centers in Tehran, Iran in the fall and winter of 2019 who were in-treatment with methadone, 300 people (150 men and 150 women) with an age range of 17 Up to 36 years and high school diploma or higher education were selected by multi-stage random cluster sampling method and answered the questionnaires of pain perception with (0.87 reliability), resilience (0.84 reliability), failure tolerance (0.72 reliability) and aggression (0.71 reliability). The obtained data were analyzed using Paired-Sample T-Test by SPSS software version 24.

The highest frequency was related to people between 22 and 26 years old with bachelor's degree and 11 to 15 years of work experience. Variables’ means in women and men were respectively 4.152±0.521 and 3.258±0.359 for pain perception, 3.961±0.357 and 3.651±0.198 for resilience, 4.208±0.303 and 3.247±0.137 for failure tolerance and 3.621±0.211 and 4.188±0.652 for aggression. The difference between men and women in pain perception, failure tolerance and aggression was significantly observed. However, there was no significant difference between men and women in resilience.

Women experience more pain and less failure in the process of quitting drugs with methadone than men, but men show more aggression than women. The process of quitting methadone seems to be more difficult for women than men. The resilience of men and women in this treatment program have no differences.