The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Spiritual Group Therapy with Spiritual Care Approach on Temptation, Emotion Regulation and Mental Health of Clients Under Methadone Maintenance Treatment

The cognitive-spiritual therapy group of addiction is a 12-session treatment based on spiritual care and based on Iranian-Islamic culture, which has been recently developed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-spiritual addiction therapy group with spiritual care approach on temptation, emotion regulation and mental health of methadone maintenance clients.

Thirty individuals treated with methadone maintenance in addiction treatment centers in Khomeini Shahr were selected as the research sample using purposive sampling. These 30 individuals were divided into two peer groups and the group intervention was randomly performed on one group (experiment) and the other group was considered as the control group. Before the intervention, the general health questionnaire, the emotional regulation subscale of the shot emotional intelligence scale and the visual analog scale for temptation were administered to the experimental and control groups as a pre-test. Also, after the intervention, the same questionnaires were administered as a post-test in two groups.

The findings of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that the cognitive-spiritual therapy group of addiction with spiritual care approach significantly increased mental health, improved emotional regulation and reduced temptation in the experimental group compared to the control group.

According to the findings, the results showed that in general, the characteristics of the treatment and its components, including focusing on responsibility and changing the lifestyle to a spiritual style, safe and continuous relationship with God, trust, prayer, gratitude, acceptance and forgiveness. Patience, spiritual problem-solving skills, finding one's identity in the universe, and effective communication with others lead to increased mental health, emotional regulation, and reduced temptation.