The Assessment Of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies And Emotional Schemas In Men With Substance Abuse, Abstinent And Normal Individuals

Substance abuse is a chronic recurring disorder who needs to manage therapy over time. The goal of current study was to assess the cognitive emotion regulation strategies and emotional schemas in men with substance abuse, abstinent and normal individuals.
In the form of a causal-comparative design, using available sampling method 30 men with substance abuse, 30 abstinent and 30 normal individuals were selected and after matching on the base of age, education and the substance they used were assessed via cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire and emotional schemas questionnaire. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to compare the three groups.
In self-blame (P=0.0004) and catastrophizing (P=0.0008) maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, the scores of individuals with substance abuse were higher than abstinent and normal individuals and in rumination (P=0.0007) individuals with substance abuse and abstinent obtained higher score in comparison with normal individuals. In refocusing on planning (P=0.0005) and positive reappraisal (P=0/00) adaptive strategies, normal individuals and abstinent in comparison with individuals with substance abuse obtained higher scores. In mental rumination (P=0.0008), blame (P=0.0008) and simplistic view of emotions (P=0.0009) individuals with substance abuse, abstinent had higher scores in comparison with normal individuals. In guilt (P=0.008) and uncontrolled (P=0.006) emotional schemas, individuals with substance abuse in comparison with normal individuals obtained higher scores.
No effective emotional schemas and emotion regulation strategies can play a key role in substance abuse initiation, maintenance and relapse.