the effects of mindfulness training and dialectical behavior therapy on drug craving and emotion self-regulation in clients with substance-dependence

Background: drug craving is a strong and resistant yearn to consume drugs; if not met, hiscondition would be followed by biopsychological issues, such as fatigue, anxiety, aggression, anddepression. this study determined the effects of mindfulness training and dialectical behaviortherapy (dbt) on drug craving and emotion regulation in clients with substance dependence.methods: this was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test and a control groupdesign. the research population included all the clients with drug use disorders, referring tomidterm substance-dependence treatment centers in baghmalek city, iran, in 2018. using aconvenience sampling method, 60 clients with drug use disorders, willing to participate in theproject were selected. accordingly, they were randomly assigned into two experimental groups(mindfulness training & dialectical behavior therapy), and a control group (n=20/group). theresearch instruments included the substance craving questionnaire-now (scq-now) andthe emotion regulation questionnaire (erq). the first experimental group underwent twelve45-minute weekly sessions of mindfulness training. besides, the second experimental groupreceived twelve 45-minute weekly sessions of dialectical behavior therapy. the control groupreceived no treatment. multivariate analysis of covariance (mancova) was applied in spssto analyze the obtained data.results: the mean±sd post-test scores of drug craving for mindfulness training, dialecticalbehavior therapy, and control groups were 130.02±8.01, 124.75±7.58, and 212.19±12.32,respectively. the collected results suggested that the provided intervention programs effectivelyreduced drug craving and improved emotion regulation in the examined clients (p=0.0001).additionally, there was no significant difference between the effects of mindfulness training anddialectical behavior therapy on drug craving and emotion regulation.conclusion: in addition to decreasing drug craving, mindfulness training and dialectical behaviortherapy can improve emotion regulation in subjects with drug use disorders.