Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Depression and Quality of Life in Spouse Caregivers of Inpatients with Substance Use Disorders

Background: Substance dependence in families can have a wide range of negative effects on the lives of those close to the dependent person, in addition to causing pain for those who are dependent. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive behavior intervention on depression and quality of life in wives who were providing care for husbands with substance use disorders. Method: The research was conducted using a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-tests. Purposive sampling was used to select 60 spouse carers of male inpatients with substance use disorders, who were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 30) and control (n = 30) groups. At baseline and post-intervention, all participants completed the depression anxiety stress scale (DASS-21) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref (WHO QOL-BREF). The intervention group received eight sessions per week of individual CBT lasting 45 to 60 minutes, while the control group did not. Data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS26 software. In statistical tests, the significance level was.05. Results: The results showed that there were significant differences between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group so cognitive behavior intervention could significantly reduce the depression and improve quality of life of substance dependent’s wife. Conclusion: These findings have important implications for clinical practise in terms of improving mental health and wellbeing in the context of male substance use disorder spouse caregivers.