The Effects of Short-Term Intensive Scanning Psychotherapy on Defense Styles and Improving the Quality of Life of Addicts under Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT)

The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of short-term intensive scanning psychotherapy on defense styles and improving the quality of life of patients with substance abuse disorder under methadone maintenance treatment.

The present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The study examined 14 men addicts under methadone maintenance treatment in Tehran from 2018 to 2020. We selected the addicts from care centers affiliated to Tehran Welfare Organization using the cluster sampling method from districts 2, 7, 14, and 19 as well as eligible centers by convenience sampling and randomly classified them into control (7 men) and experimental (7 men) groups. To collect data, we utilized the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) by Andrews et al. (1993) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and analyzed the data using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

There was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest of the experimental group in scores of developed defense styles, neurotic defense styles, and undeveloped defense styles (P<0.05), but there was not any significant difference between the pretest and posttest of the control group. In the experimental group, the effectiveness of the intervention was stable for three months. There was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest results of the experimental group in quality of life index (P<0.05), but there was not any significant difference between the pretest and posttest of the control group, and the effectiveness of the intervention was not stable during three months after cessation of treatment.

The results indicated that short-term intensive scanning psychotherapy was effective in improving defense styles and the quality of life of patients with substance abuse disorder under methadone maintenance treatment.