The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Alexithymia, Emotion Regulation, and Psychological Capital of Male Substance Abusers in Kerman

 Substance dependence is a maladaptive pattern that leads to clinically significant degradation and is manifested through a set of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on alexithymia, emotional regulation and psychological capital of male substance abusers, under the auspices of addiction treatment centers.

 This randomized clinical trial was conducted from June to September 2021 in Kerman, Iran using a pretest, post-test design with a control group. A single therapy center was randomly selected via multi-stage cluster sampling from several substance abuse treatment centers using agonists for treatment. Then 50 people were randomly selected and allocated to experimental and control groups. The research instruments were questionnaires for alexithymia, emotional regulation, and psychological capital. After the pretest phase, the experimental group underwent 10 sessions of CBT. In the next step, the post-test was conducted and after 6 weeks the follow-up test was performed on the groups. The control group did not receive the intervention. Finally, the data obtained from 40 participants were analyzed using the t-test in SPSS-25 software.

 The findings indicated that the intervention in the post-test phase significantly reduced alexithymia (P=0.001), increased emotion regulation (P=0.001) and increased psychological capital (P=0.003). Also, in the follow-up phase, the results show a significant decrease in alexithymia (P=0.002), increase in emotion regulation (P=0.001) and increase in psychological capital (P=0.002).

 CBT can improve alexithymia, emotional regulation and psychological capital of substance abusers and can be used in addiction treatment centers.