The Effects of Logotherapy on Couple Burnout, Self-Compassion, and Intimacy in Substance-Dependents

Substance–Dependence (SD) is a biopsychosocial disorder. A characteristic impacting instability in individual and family life, that may in some way, cause SD and harm individuals is couple burnout. A factor affecting personal health and wellbeing, as well as family stability, is marital intimacy. Self–Compassion creates psychological wellbeing in individuals; its promotion facilitates personal and family health. Besides, as a structure of positive psychology, it includes reflective self–knowledge and is free from judgment. SD, as the scourge of the century, in addition to high financial costs, has a great impact on all aspects of individual and family life and is on the rise. To plan appropriate actions, promote mental health services, and create related policies in the community, it is necessary to be familiar with appropriate treatment and training approaches, including Logotherapy (LT) in individuals with SD. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of group LT on couple burnout, self–esteem, and marital impurity in individuals with SD.

This was a quasi–experimental study with pretest–posttest and a control group design. The study population consisted of individuals with SD referring to the Nico Salamat Addiction Treatment Clinic in Ghorveh City, Iran, in 2018. The sample size comprised of 90 individuals with SD who were selected by systematic sampling method. Accordingly, 24 subjects were randomly placed in the experimental and control groups (n=12/group). The inclusion criteria of the study were as follows: an age range of 23–42 years; consent to participate in treatment sessions; presenting SD; having a record in the Nico Salamat Addiction Treatment Clinic; a minimum education of middle school, and a minimum attendance of ≥1 month in the relevant clinic. The exclusion criteria of the study included having a disorder or other illnesses; being treated for an illness; concurrent participation in other treatment programs; unwillingness to attend meetings; low level of education, and inability to write homework. To collect the required data, we used the Couple Burnout Scale (Pines, 1996), Marital Intimacy Scale (Walker & Thompson, 1983), and Self–Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003). The experimental group received 11 sessions of group LT according to Hutzell’s LT package (2002); however, the controls received no intervention. Mean and standard deviation was used to describe the research variables. Univariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used in SPSS at a significance level of 0.05 to analyze the obtained data.

The current research results suggested that the mean posttest scores of self–compassion and marital intimacy in the experimental group were significantly higher than that in the control group (p<0.001). Besides, the mean posttest couple burnout scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than that of the controls (p<0.001). Moreover, the effect size for couple burnout, self–esteem, and marital disinfection was calculated as 0.68, 0.65, and 0.64, respectively.

According to collected results, group LT was effective in reducing couple burnout and increasing self–compassion and intimacy in individuals with SD.