Effectiveness of Narrative Therapy in Generalized Anxiety and Stress Coping Skills among Addicts' Wives under Treatment in Addiction Treatment Clinics

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of narrative therapy in generalized anxiety disorder and stress coping skills of the wives of addicts under treatment in addiction treatment clinics. This study was done via a quasi-experimental research design with two groups and three stages (pre-test, post-test, and follow-up). To carry out the study, among all women with opioid and industrial addicted husbands in the clinics of Najafabad city of Isfahan in 2017, 30 volunteers were selected via purposive sampling method in line with the entry and exit criteria. They were then randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 15) and control group (n = 15). The GAD test and the Lazarus and Folkman Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ) were administered to the participants in order to conduct the pre-test. The experimental group received eight sessions (two 90-minute sessions on a weekly basis) of narrative therapy. In the next step, one week after the intervention, both experimental and control groups took the post-test. Following the passage of 45 days, the follow-up test was also conducted. The results indicated that narrative therapy has a significant effect on the generalized anxiety disorder and stress coping skills of the addicts' wives under treatment in addiction treatment clinics (p<0.05). These results have remained stable over time. Therefore, narrative therapy can be used to increase the mental health of addicted families in health centers.