The Effectiveness of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy on Emotion Dysregulation in Methamphetamine Abusers

Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT) on decreasing emotion dysregulation in methamphetamine abusers. Method: The present study was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of this study included all methamphetamine abusers referred to clinics in Tehran. Among them, 33 individuals were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into the experimental (n=17) and control (n=16) groups. The experimental group received 12 sessions of interpersonal and social rhythm therapy designed by Frank (2007), while the control group did not receive any intervention. Both groups were evaluated in pre-test and post-test using the difficulty in emotion regulation scale and the data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance. Results: The results showed that interpersonal and social rhythm therapy significantly reduced the difficulty in emotion regulation. Conclusion: Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy can be considered as a new intervention to reduce the possibility of lapse and relapse by improving emotion regulation in substance-dependent individuals.