The effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on mental well-being of opiate-consumers

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is one of the techniques for shaping behavior and procedure for changing non-adaptive beliefs by using cognitive-behavioral theory to treat addiction disorders. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness on mental well-being of opioid users. METHODS: This pretest-posttest experimental study was conducted among drug users in Sanandaj city, Northwest of Iran, during 2016. To conduct the research, 20 participants were selected using available sampling method, and randomly divided into two equal groups of experimental and control. The experimental group received knowledge about cognitive therapy for 8 sessions of 90 minutes. We gathered the data of two study groups using Mental Well-being Questionnaire before and after intervention. Data analyses conducted using independent sample t test. RESULTS: Mindfulness therapy had a significant effect on subjective well-being of opium users. So that, the mean scores of the variable of the overall index of mental well-being in the experimental group (177.90 ± 20.14) was significantly larger than the control group (141.30 ± 19.16) in the posttest with the control of the effect of the pretest (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Findings of the present study suggest that cognitive therapy based on mind-awareness strategies helps people to replace reasonable beliefs with irrational beliefs in order to achieve new insights that seek to communicate with others and improve subjective well-being.