The effect of group dialectical behavior therapy on self-control, emotional regulation and disturbance tolerance of drug addicts

Drug addicts have problems in the field of self-control, emotional regulation and disturbance tolerance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of group dialectical behavior therapy on self-control, emotional regulation and disturbance tolerance of drug addicts.

The present study was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The research population was drug addicts of Mashhad city in 2019. Among the members of the community, 30 people were selected as a sample with the purposeful sampling method and were assigned to two equal groups by the simple random method with the help of lottery. The experimental group received 12 sessions of 90 minutes with group dialectic behavior therapy and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. Data were collected with demographic information form, self-control questionnaire, emotional regulation scale and disturbance tolerance scale and were analyzed with chi-square tests and multivariate covariance analysis in SPSS version 23 software.

The findings showed that there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of education level and age range (P>0.05). Group dialectic behavior therapy increased self-control (F=125.86, P<0.001) and disturbance tolerance (F=151.001, P<48) and decreased emotional regulation difficulty (P<68.001, P<0.001, F=21) drug addicts were exposed.

The results of this study showed the effect of group dialectical behavior therapy on increasing self-control and tolerance of disturbance and reducing the difficulty of emotional regulation of drug addicts. Therefore, counselors and therapists can use group dialectical behavior therapy along with other treatment methods to improve psychological characteristics.