The efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy on the life expectancy and decision-making of recovering addicts

Drug addiction has many negative consequences. It is substantial to use methods that lead to increasing the life expectancy and decision-making of drug addicts. In addition to the treatment methods used for addiction, no study has investigated the effect of treatment based on acceptance and commitment to improving the life expectancy and decision-making of drug addicts.

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the efficacy of treatment based on acceptance and commitment to life expectancy and decision-making in recovered drug addicts.

This research was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test and control group. The statistical population of the study included recovering addicts in Yazd in 1400. By purposive sampling method, 40 people were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group). For the experimental group, acceptance and commitment treatment was performed weekly in the form of 8 sessions of 90 minutes, and for the control group, no treatment was performed. The General decision making styles and Snyder's Hope Scale were completed by the participants in the pre-test and post-test stages. Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data.

According to the results, acceptance and commitment based treatment significantly increased life expectancy scores and rational and intuitive decision-making style and significantly decreased scores of instant decision-making style and dependence in the experimental group (P <0.05).

Based on the results of this study, it seems that acceptance and commitment therapy can be effective in improving life expectancy and decision making of recovering addicts. Therefore, in the treatment and prevention of addiction, an intervention based on acceptance and commitment can be used to improve and strengthen life expectancy and decision-making in addicts and help them overcome the harm caused by addiction, especially relapse.