The efficacy of compassion therapy intervention on lifestyle and emotional processing of addicts in the non-drug rehabilitation phase

Emotional processing and destructive lifestyle are among the components that impact drug abuse; However, interventions for improving the emotional processing and lifestyle of addicts have received less consideration. Therefore, considering the mechanism of the impact of compassion-based therapy and its effectiveness on the component's risk of recurrence, might this intervention be effective on the lifestyle and emotional processing of addicts?

The aim of the present study was to the effectiveness of compassion therapy intervention on the lifestyle and emotional processing of addicts in the non-drug rehabilitation phase.

The quasi-experimental research design was pretest-posttest and follow-up with the control group. The statistical population of this study included all addicts who had received a diagnosis of opioid dependence in 2021 at addiction treatment clinics in Urmia. The sample size consisted of 30 Subjects of adolescents (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group). The statistical population was selected by the available sampling method and placed in two groups. The compassion therapy intervention was implemented for the experimental group, while the control group did not receive any intervention. The research instruments included the Lifestyle Scale (Lali et al., 2012) and the Emotional Processing Scale (Backer et al., 2007). Finally, Data were analyzed using the Repeated Measures ANOVA.

The results showed that compassion therapy intervention had a significant effect on lifestyle components and emotional processing (P< 0.001). So that the scores of physical health, exercise and fitness, weight control and nutrition, disease prevention, psychological health, spiritual health, social health, drug avoidance, accident prevention, and environmental health increase, and scores of suppression, Lack of emotional experience, symptoms of lack of emotional processing, lack of emotion regulation and avoidance had a significant decrease in the post-test phase and the change in scores in the follow-up phase was stable.

According to the results, it might be concluded that compassion therapy intervention improves lifestyle (Physical and psychological health, daily activities, and diet) and emotional processing (Management and processing of emotional information) in addicts in the non-drug rehabilitation phase.