Comparison of Stress, Coping Styles and Their Relationship with General Health among Opium Dependents and Nonopium Dependents

To deal stress, people use coping styles which are adaptive or maladaptive. Drug use has been conceived as a maladaptive means of coping utilized by individuals unable to deal with stress in more adaptive ways. The present study has been investigated stress, coping styles and theirs relationship with general health in opium dependents and non- opium dependents. In the case-control study, subjects were 63 opium dependents and control group were matched in number, age and sex with case group. The instruments used were the Coping Style Questionnaire (CSQ), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Life Experience Survey (LES). The results show, statistically significant associations between two groups of stress (P<0.01), coping styles (P<0.01) and general health (P<0.028). Also relationship between stress, coping styles and general health in opium dependents has been significant (P<0.002), but we found no significant relationship in non- opium dependents. Findings of this study represents opium dependents have maladaptive coping styles which are related to more stress and loss of general health. These results suggest that coping style is a key factor in assessing the relationship between stress and general health in opium dependents.