Comparison of the Effectiveness of Short-term Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy and Brief Intervention in the Mental Health Dimensions of Addicted People under the Auspices of Harm Reduction Centers in Ahvaz

Background: drug addiction is regarded as one of the daunting challenges posed to people in human societies. since this issue has many hidden and visible dimensions, it should be considered from different perspectives.objectives: the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of short-term cognitive-behavioral group therapy and brief intervention in the mental health dimensions of addicted people under the auspices of harm reduction centers in ahvaz.methods: this quasi-experimental study was conducted based on a pre-test-post-test design with a follow-up. from two harm reduction centers in ahvaz, a center was randomly selected. after sampling and estimating the sample size, 80 subjects were selected and randomly assigned to three groups (two experimental groups and one control group). a general health questionnaire was used to collect the needed data. in this study, statistical methods of analysis of covariance (ancova) and repeated measures analysis of variance were used. a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. results: based on the results, cognitive-behavioral group therapy and brief intervention had no significant effect on physical symptoms and social functioning; nonetheless, they exerted a significant effect on anxiety (p<0.001) and depression (p<0.001). moreover, the comparison of means demonstrated that brief intervention is more effective than cognitive-behavioral group therapy (p<0.001).conclusion: as evidenced by the obtained results, it can be concluded that the two methods of cognitive-behavioral group therapy and brief intervention were effective in improving the mental health of addicted people under the auspices of harm reduction centers in ahvaz.