Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Enriched with Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) on Psychological Distress in Patients under Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT)

Mental problems caused by opioid addiction or drug withdrawal can increase the risk of relapse in methadone maintenance treatment. The present study was conducted to compare the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy enriched with compassion-focused therapy on the effect of sertraline and venlafaxine on patients' psychological distress under methadone maintenance treatment. This study was a clinical trial with a pre-test and post-test design. Forty patients under methadone maintenance treatment were selected by voluntary sampling and randomly divided into two groups. The first group received acceptance and commitment therapy enriched with compassion-focused therapy and venlafaxine, and the second group received acceptance and commitment therapy enriched with compassion-focused therapy and sertraline for intervention days. The patients were evaluated based on the anxiety, stress, and depression questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the paired t-test and analysis of covariance at a significance level of 0.01. Both venlafaxine, and sertraline plus acceptance and commitment therapy enriched with compassion-focused therapy, were influential on psychological distress and its dimensions (depression, anxiety, and stress) (P<0.001). Sertraline had a more significant effect on psychological distress, and anxiety than venlafaxine (P<0.01). No significant difference was observed between them on depression and stress (p>0.05). Sertraline is more effective than Venlafaxine in controlling psychological symptoms in methadone maintenance treatment.