The effectiveness of narrative therapy on craving, possibility of lapse, and relapse among the patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT)

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of narrative therapy on craving, the possibility of lapse, and relapse among patients with MMT.  The research method was semi-experiential with a pre-test and post-test design and a control group with follow-up phase (one month). The statistical population included all the patients who had been referred to the substance abuse treatment centers of Garmsar City (1399-1400), among which 72 men were treated with methadone were selected by the available sampling method and randomly divided into an experimental groups (36 people) and control group (36 people). The treatment consists of 10 weekly 90-minute narrative therapy sessions. The required measures were the relapse prevention scale (RPS) wright et al (1993) and the morphine test. Variance analysis with repeated measures analysis was run to analyze the data. The results of the research showed that narrative therapy significantly reduced craving (0/58), the possibility of lapse (0/51), and relapse (p<0.05) in patients treated with methadone. There was also a statistically significant difference between the two groups in the post-test and follow-up (p<0.05). From the above findings, we can conclude that Narrative therapy can be used to improve the possibility of lapse, craving, and relapse among patients with MMT.