ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Jangi   P (1)
Ramak   N (2)
Sangani   A.R (*3)






(*3) Psychology and Exceptional Children Education Department, Psychology Faculty, Science & Research Branch of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
(1) Educational Psychology Department, Psychology Faculty, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
(2) Psychology Department, Psychology Faculty, Bandargaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandargaz, Iran

Correspondence

Article History

Received:  October  21, 2018
Accepted:  January 30, 2019
ePublished:  March 19, 2019

BRIEF TEXT


Addiction is one of the basic problems of today's societies, and the Middle Eastern countries have special conditions for turning youth into addiction due to their specific geographical, political, social, and cultural conditions.

… [2-7]. Kashefi [4] in his research showed that there is a significant negative correlation between addicts' scores in meta-cognitive beliefs and self-destructive behaviors, which suggests that people who have conscious beliefs about their position are less likely to tend to self-destructive behaviors [8]. … [9, 10]. Litt et al. have pointed to various factors such as emotional distress and lack of coping skills as well as inappropriate irrational beliefs in the study of the causes of drug addiction and its recurrence after treatment [11-16]. According to studies conducted by Berking et al. [17] and Alizadeh et al. [18], people with more psychological distress complain of symptoms of physical illness, and the prevalence of physical illness is a powerful predictor of physical, psychological, and social harm. Moschak et al. [19] showed that distress tolerance is associated with negative beliefs and shaking behaviors, and those who are more tolerant of distress can better cope with anxiety due to fear. Najafi et al. [2] showed that the difficulty in tolerating distress and emotional tendencies is one of the problems of substance abusers and this leads to failure in managing the emotional of these individuals.

The aim of this study was to compare self-destructive behaviors, irrational beliefs, and emotional distress tolerance in men recovering from opioid and stimulant.

This descriptive study is a causal-comparative or post event survey.

This study was carried out among all recovering addicts in 8 addiction treatment centers in Gorgan in 2018. Also, the baseline therapy in the psychological and physical function had been done by physicians and psychiatrists of the addiction treatment centers regarding the doses of therapeutic drugs and individuals in different time periods.

A total of 40 opioid recovering addicts and 40 stimulant recovering addicts were selected by two-stage cluster sampling method. Specifically, in the first stage of sampling, 5 non-governmental addiction treatment centers in Gorgan were randomly selected and, then, among the 5 centers, whose list of all referrals in opioid recovering addicts and stimulant recovering addicts groups was 630 and 386, respectively, two groups (40 opioid recovering addicts and 40 stimulant recovering addicts) were selected by cluster sampling method, considering that the minimum number of samples for the causal-comparative methods is 15, with pre-estimation and probable generalization of the results of the two treatment groups (according to the time interval referred to and the dose of the drug used by the addiction treatment centers that were previously grouped). The inclusion criteria included being in addiction treatment centers for stimulant (F12) and opioid (F11), male gender, age range of 20-55, being married, minimum literacy level of secondary school, being resident of Gorgan, lack of significant psychological disorders diagnosed by the psychiatrist based on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMV), the fifth edition, and exclusion criteria included incomplete filling of instruments.

After explaining to the subjects about the purpose of the study and gaining the confidence of the subjects and assuring them of the existence of the necessary conditions for the correct implementation of the tests, the questionnaires were distributed and all subjects were assessed in two groups by questionnaires. Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT) [20], the Emotional Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS) [21, 22], and the Self-Destructive Behavior Questionnaire [23] were used to conduct the research. The data were analyzed by SPSS 24, using multiple variance analysis. It should be noted that the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normal distribution of data, and Box's test was used to test the homogeneity of variances.

In the opioid recovering addicts group, 18 individuals were 20-30, 13 were 31-40, and 9 were 41-55 years old, and in stimulant recovering addicts group, 21 individuals were 20-30, 14 were 31-40, and 5 were 41-55 years old. Regarding academic status, in the opioid recovering addicts group, 28 had a secondary school degree, 10 had a diploma, and 2 had a bachelor's degree. In stimulant recovering addicts group, 32 had a secondary school degree and 8 had diploma. In terms of job status, all individuals in two groups had no job. There was a significant difference in at least one of the subscales of self-destructive behaviors, irrational beliefs, and emotional distress tolerance in opioid and stimulant recovering addicts (p<0.001; F=4.402; Table 1). In general, there was a significant difference between need to be confirmed (p=0.019; F=5.771), tendency to blame (p=0.003; F=9.718), emotional irresponsibility (p=0.021; F=2.597), Being concerned and anxiety (p=0.027; F=5.119), avoidance of the problem (p=0.041; F=4.328), and dependence (p=0.004; F=8.835) among irrational beliefs, and tolerance (p=0.001; F=13.362) and absorption by negative emotions (p=0.043; F=4.254) among emotional distress tolerance, and self-destructive behaviors (p=0.035; F=4.636) with a 95% confidence interval in the opioid and stimulant recovering addicts groups.

… [24-27]. In 28. Aminpour and Ahmadzadeh's research [28], the results showed that the scores of irrational beliefs in addicted people is higher than normal people. Hafezi and Malek Mahmoodi's research [29] showed that irrational beliefs in opioid recovering addicts are lower than other stimulant users and have better general health that are consistent with the results of this study… [30-32]. Khantzian [33] believes that as stimulant users describe negative emotions and anxiety as unbearable and disconcerting and cannot manage these emotional states without relying on narcotics, they use the physiological and psychological properties of drug to achieve emotional stability. Based on the biological perspective, persons who are addicted to stimulants are more likely to increase their dependable behaviors, which are a kind of augmentation, in proportion to other factors, depending on the severity of their physical dependence. On the other hand, these stimulants, such as amphetamines, create the effects and dependence on the drug at the first time, depending on the structure and the ingredients, which can affect the nature of the person's malicious behaviors [34]. On the other hand, based on the behavioral point of view, happiness and mobility of the person with the use of drug can lead to his positive passion, and the person with this regard primarily depends on the drug itself and its profound effects as well as methods that can resolve the need; methods such as communicating with family and friends in terms of material and moral support, but with regard to opioids, there has been observed lesser effects, and it seems that the person has experienced more autonomy of behavior [35]. … [36-38].

It is suggested that in future research, the research studies should be conducted regarding the role of emotional and cognitive variables in self-destructive behaviors according to the type of drug used in addicted people.

One of the limitations of this study is that the research was carried out in a city with a limited group and the sample of this study included residents living in Gorgan; so, the generalization of the results to other cities of the province should be cautious.

Self- destructive behaviors, irrational beliefs, and emotional distress tolerance in the opioid stimulant recovering addicts are in a better position than in the stimulant recovering addicts.

We would like to thank the officials of the mid-term addiction treatment centers for the permits and goodwill cooperation for the agreements on the collection of samples and all the participants who co-operated with us to conduct the research and completed the questionnaires.

There is no conflict of interest.

This research was approved by the Ethics Committee of Gorgan Azad University with the code IR.IAU.AK.REC.1397.019.

The authors did not receive any financial support from any organization and independently conducted the research.

TABLES and CHARTS

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