the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on suicidal thoughts, sensation seeking and, distress tolerance among substance users

Introduction: addiction is a chronic disease leaving deep social, psychological, physical, and economic effects on the individual. this study aimed to assess the effects of acceptance and commitment therapy on suicidal thoughts, sensation seeking, and distress tolerance in substance users. materials and methods: this was a quasi-experimental controlled trial with a pretest/posttest design. the study population consisted of all substance-dependent individuals who were referred to the addiction treatment center of the psychiatric department of mustafa khomeini hospital in ilam in 2022. using the convenience sampling method, 32 individuals were selected as the sample population and were randomly assigned to two groups of 16 individuals. in this study, the sensation seeking scale (sss), beck suicidal ideation scale (bssi), and distress tolerance scale (dts) were used to collect data. the data analysis method was descriptive and inferential statistics. data were analyzed using chi square, pillay effect, wilks' lambda, hoteling effect, root largest rey, and multivariate covariance (mancova) tests in spss v.16, with a significance level of 0.001. results: acceptance and commitment therapy was effective on the studied variables. the findings of this study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy reduced suicidal thoughts (p < 0.001), reduced sensation seeking (p < 0.001), and increased distress tolerance (p<0.001). conclusion: acceptance and commitment therapy has positive effects on suicidal thoughts, sensation seeking, and distress tolerance in male substance users, reducing suicidal thoughts and sensation seeking and augmenting distress tolerance in them.