Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Background & Objectives: Increasing in use of drug (drug addiction and drug abuse) has become a concern of all communities as a health and social problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral training on people happiness increase dependent on stimulant drugs. 
Methods: The research was quasi-experimental study with random assignment of subjects to experimental and control groups, with pre-posttest and follow-up. The statistical population of the present study was to identify the drug addicts who were referred to the welfare organization of Tehran (capital city of Iran) to reduce the dependence on addiction treatment centers. Samples in this study be included 30 patients’ dependent on stimulants for available sampling formed in the respective centers. The criteria for entry into the study included the use of stimulants, the length of drug addiction for more than one year, male subjects and lack of physical and mental illness. The subjects were randomly divided in two experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The ethical considerations of this study included obtaining written consent from subjects, confidentiality of the information of all subjects, not using the names and information of subjects in the process of data analysis, and group analysis of scores. Instruments used in this study were the Oxford happiness questionnaire. Cognitive-behavioral group therapy sessions a week for 10 sessions over 3 months for 1 session and every 90 minutes using cognitive-behavioral pattern derived from relevant research records prepared and held for trial. Data were analyzed using SPSS software using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (covariance analysis and repeated measures variance analysis).
Results: Descriptive findings showed that the average pretest experimental and control groups was not different, while the posttest differences between the experimental group (25.78) and control (18.33) has been observed. Covariance analysis was used to investigate the difference between groups in the posttest area or to remove the pretest effect. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean posttest scores of the experimental group and the control group after limitation of initial differences in the pretest was significance in happiness (p<0.001, F=12.84). In other words, cognitive-behavioral education had effective impact on increasing the happiness of addicted people to stimulants. The difference between the mean scores of the pre-test and the post-test of the test group, after limitation of initial differences in the pretest, was significant in the happiness score (p<0.001), while there was not a significant difference between the scores before the test and posttest control group in happiness score (p=0.521). Therefore, cognitive-behavioral education had influential effects on people with substance dependence on their happiness in the experimental group. In addition, the effects of this training were stable after 1 month, and there was no significant difference between the mean posttest scores and the follow-up of the experimental group (p=0.730). Other findings of this study also showed that there was no significant difference between the mean posttest scores and the follow-up of the control group in the happiness score (p=0.460).
Conclusion: According to the results, it seems that cognitive-behavioral training could enhance happiness. Therefore, cognitive-behavioral training, by psychologists and psychotherapists, in substance as a preventive intervention is recommended.