Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Metacognitive Therapy on Adaptive and Maladaptive Strategies of Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Patients with Substance Use Disorder undergoing Methadone Maintenance Treatment

Substance use disorder, as one of the chronic psychiatric diseases, has become one of the major problems in society today. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and metacognitive therapy on adaptive and maladaptive strategies of emotional regulation in patients with substance use disorder who were under the Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT).

The method of the present study was semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design, a three-month follow-up step and a control group. The sample consisted of 60 patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment who had visited Mashhad addiction treatment centers during the second 6 months of 2018. Subjects were selected by the convenience sampling emthod and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (acceptance and commitment therapy and metacognitive therapy) and also a control group. Data were collected using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and were analyzed using SPSS 24 software.

The results showed that both acceptance and commitment therapy and metacognitive therapy are effective in increasing adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and reducing maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategiesis. Moreover, the findings showed that acceptance and commitment therapy is more effective than metacognitive therapy in modifying cognitive emotion regulation strategies. In general, it can be concluded that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment is an appropriate therapeutic approach for patients with substance use disorder who are under the methadone maintenance treatment.