Comparing the Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy and Emotion Regulation Training on Cognitive Flexibility and the Feeling of Loneliness in Substance-Dependent Individuals Self-Referring to the Welfare Organization

The present research aimed to compare the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy and emotion regulation training on cognitive flexibility and the feeling of loneliness in substance-dependent individuals self-referring to the Welfare Organization. 

The research method was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included all substance-dependent individuals self-referring to the Welfare Organization in the city of Shiraz in 2021, of which 45 people were selected by the convenience sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental and one control groups. The Cognitive Flexibility Inventory and the Loneliness Scale were used to collect the data. One experimental group received compassion-focused therapy and another experimental group received emotion regulation training once a week as a group for eight 90-minute sessions, but the control group received no intervention. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. 

The results showed that the difference between the experimental groups and the control group was significant in both approaches, and compassion-focused therapy had a greater effect on reducing the feeling of loneliness compared to emotion regulation training. On the other hand, emotion regulation training had a greater effect on increasing cognitive flexibility compared to compassion-focused therapy. 

 Based on the findings, it can be concluded that individuals with drug addiction can achieve more cognitive flexibility and experience less loneliness by learning the techniques based on emotion regulation and compassion-focused therapy. In addition, compassion-focused therapy is more effective in increasing cognitive flexibility and emotion regulation training is also more effective in reducing the feeling of loneliness in substance-dependent individuals.