investigating the effect of emotional intelligence on the addiction relapse after quitting

Background: addiction is multi-dimensional medical problem and psychologic defects have a major role on its establishment. this study was designed to determine the effect of emotional quotient (eq) on the rate of addiction relapse after quitting. methods: this was a prospective cross-sectional study on 22 to 51 year old subjects who were being treated at chemical dependency rehabilitation centers in mashhad, iran, during december 2012 to may 2013. for assessment of eq, the persian version of bar-on eq questionnaire was employed at first visit of each patient. during the rehabilitation therapy, the subjects were visited monthly. the data of patients were collected during the first 6 months post-quitting. results: one-hundred sixty subjects were studied which 87% of them were men. mean (sd) score of patients’ eq was 11.9 (2.8). the mean number of addiction relapses was 2.1 (2.8). data analysis showed that there was a significant inverse correlation between eq score and the number of relapses (r = -0.82, p = 0.05). in addition, it was found that the eq score had a direct significant relationship with age (r = 0.33, p = 0.05). no significant correlation between type of abused substance and the number of relapses was found. conclusion: eq has a positive impact on preventing addiction relapse. increasing eq through educational programs can be used as a preventive measure for treating addict persons.