The effectiveness of cognitive therapy based mindfulness on brain-behavioral systems and emotional regulation of opiate addicts

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professorof, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Ph.D. Student of General Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.

3 Associate professor of psychology, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran.

4 Associate Professor of general psychology, Department of Psychology, Azarbaijan Shshid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based mindfulness on brain-behavioral systems and emotional regulation of opiate addicts. The research method was a pretest-posttest with control group and the statistical population included male addicted patients who referred to the Besharat Tabriz addiction treatment center during the winter of 2018. Among them, 30 who had inclusion criteria for the treatment plan were purposefully selected as sample and randomly assigned to two groups of 15 controls and experimental. Both groups responded initially to the behavioral inhibition and activation system of Carver and White (1994) and the emotional regulation of Gross and John (2003) questionnaires. The experimental group then participated in cognitive therapy based mindfulness sessions. The control group did not receive any intervention.. Then the questionnaires were re-completed by both groups. Finally, the data from the groups were prepared for analysis. The results of covariance analysis showed that cognitive therapy based mindfulness therapy increased behavioral inhibition rates and decreased behavioral activation scores. The results of covariance analysis showed that the mean of emotional regulation in the post-test in the experimental group was significantly increased compared to the control group. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that cognitive therapy based mindfulness therapy is effective on behavioral brain systems and emotional regulation of opiate addicts.

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