The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training and Dialectical Behavior Therapy on Drug Craving and Emotional Self-Regulation in Addicted Clients

Background: Drug craving is a strong and resistant yearn to consume drugs, which, if not met, would be followed by psychological and physical suffering such as fatigue, anxiety, aggression, and depression. This study determined the effectiveness of mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) on drug craving and emotional self-regulation in addicted clients. Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design and a control group. The research population was all the clients with addiction disorder referring to midterm addiction treatment centers in Baghmalek City-Iran during 2018. Using convenience sampling, we selected 60 clients with addiction disorder willing to participate in the project and randomly assigned them into two experimental groups (mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy) and a control group (n= 20 per group). The research instruments included the Substance Craving Questionnaire-NOW (SCQ-NOW) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The first experimental group underwent twelve sessions (45-minute sessions per week) of mindfulness training and the second experimental group received twelve sessions (45-minute sessions per week) of dialectical behavior therapy. The control group did not receive any treatments. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and SPSS version 25.0 were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean ± SD of the drug craving for mindfulness training, dialectical behavior therapy, and control groups in the post-test phase were 130.02 ± 8.01, 124.75 ± 7.58, and 212.19 ± 12.32, respectively. The results showed that intervention programs were effective in reducing drug craving and improving emotional self-regulation in addicted clients (P=0.0001). Also, there was no significant difference between the effects of mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy on the dependent variables. Conclusion: In addition to decreasing drug craving, mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy can improve emotional self-regulation in addicted clients.