effectiveness of mindfulness-based relapse prevention group therapy and treatment as usual on shame and self-criticism in individuals with opioid use disorder: a comparative investigation

Background: shame and self-criticism are two variables that refer to negative self-assessment. such negative self-assessments cause unpleasant emotions, which are among the known factors involved in drug abuse and relapse. objectives: this study aimed to compare mindfulness-based relapse prevention (mbrp) group therapy and treatment as usual (tau) in terms of their effect on shame and self-criticism in individuals with opioid use disorder (oud). patients and methods: the current quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and follow-up design was conducted on 36 patients who met the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (dsm-5) criteria for oud. the participants were randomly assigned to two groups. one group received a combination of mbrp group therapy and tau, and the other group was treated only by tau. the participants filled out the other as shamer scale and the forms of self-criticizing/attacking and self-reassuring scale in the pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages. the data were statistically analyzed using a mixed-design analysis of variance. results: the results indicated that the mean score of shame significantly decreased in the follow-up compared to pretest and posttest. moreover, the combination of mbrp group therapy and tau was significantly more effective than tau alone. the posttest and follow-up mean scores of the participants who received a combination of mbrp group therapy and tau were significantly lower than those treated only with tau. conclusions: the study results showed that mbrp could be considered an effective therapeutic approach for reducing shame and self-criticism in individuals with oud.