The Effectiveness of Forgiveness Training and Mindfulness Training on Cognitive Flexibility in Men with Substance Abuse Disorder

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of forgiveness training and mindfulness training on cognitive flexibility in men with substance abuse disorders.

The method of quasi-experimental research was pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population included all male drug users who referred to the de-addiction camp in Zabul city in 2019, 60 of whom were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to three groups, two experimental and control groups. The experimental group of forgiveness training received 8 sessions and the experimental group of mindfulness training received 12 training sessions. The data were collected using the cognitive flexibility questionnaire and analyzed using the variance analysis method with repeated measurements.

The results showed that men with substance abuse disorder who underwent forgiveness training had more flexibility than the control group who did not receive training. And men with substance abuse disorder who underwent mindfulness training had more flexibility than both the control group that was not trained and the group that underwent forgiveness training. And these results remained stable in the 3-month follow-up.

In this research, forgiveness and mindfulness training has a significant effect on the cognitive flexibility of men with substance abuse disorder, and compared to the two methods of mindfulness training and forgiveness training, the mindfulness method has a significantly higher score in cognitive flexibility than forgiveness training. in men with substance abuse disorder.