REFLECTING ON LIFE SCRIPT, RELATED UNCONSCIOUS BELIEFS, AND FUTURE PROJECTIONS AS A FACTOR OF REMISSION DURATION IN MALE PATIENTS WITH ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE

Abstract

A cross-sectional study performed in a Moscow hospital for addiction treatment (2019—2020) tested a hypothesis that the capacity to reflect on a life script exerted a positive effect on alcohol dependence (AD) remission duration. The sample included 61 males with AD and without dual diagnosis; the mean age was 44.1 (SD = 10.1) years. Methods. (1) Socio-demographic and clinical data was collected using a semi-structured therapeutic interview. (2) Explicit representations of one’s future were evaluated using a Self-defining Future Projections task; “Life Line”, and a “Cultural script” task. (3) Data on life script characteristics was gathered using the semi-structured “Script Questionnaire”. Qualitative data was processed by means of quantitative content analysis performed by experts based on relevant guidelines. Effects of verbalized life script characteristics on several remission parameters were assessed using multiple linear regression. Results and Conclusions. People with AD who were capable of verbalizing and reflecting on long-term, self-relevant representations of the future related to the basic beliefs about their own life course, were capable of maintaining longer remissions in contrast to those who failed to reflect on these topics and limited their memories and future projections by overgeneral cultural script events.

Keywords

• alcohol dependence
• remission
• reflection
• cognitive therapy
• future thinking
• autobiographical memory overgeneralization
• life script