The effectiveness of Quality of Life Therapy (QOLT) on distress tolerance and cognitive emotion regulation in substance abusers

The basis of many psychological disorders is rooted in quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of education based on improving quality of life on tolerance of distress and cognitive emotion regulation in substance abusers.

The statistical population of men over 20 years old referred to addiction treatment centers in Mashhad city, Iran in 2019. Fifty individuals were selected and randomly divided into experimental (n= 25) and control (n= 25) groups. The experimental group received 10 sessions of skills training based on quality of life and the control group did not receive any experimental test. The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and the Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS) questionnaires were completed by the participants in the pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up. Data were analyzed by repeated measure Covariance with SPSS software.

There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups regarding cognitive emotion regulation and distress tolerance after intervention (P< 0.01). Also, the mean scores of cognitive emotion regulation and distress tolerance were significantly different in the experimental group before, after the intervention and the follow-up phase (P< 0.001).

Based on the findings, it seems that training in skills based on improving quality of life on distress tolerance and cognitive emotion regulation is effective in substance abusers.