The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy in Improve-ment of Relapse Prevention Skills and Mental Health in the Addicts

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy in improvement of relapse prevention skills and mental health in the addicted. The statistical population was all the addicted who were successfully detoxificated. For experimental group fifteen addicts were selected based on the available sample and for control group, fifteen subjects were paired with subjects of experimental group. The experimental group received cognitive-behavioral group therapy during twelve 90-minute sessions. The control group did not receive any treatment. Later, all participants completed the GHQ-28 inventory as pretest, posttest and 2 month follow up questionnaire. After treatment, urine test was performed for pre- test and follow up to identify relapsed individuals. The results revealed that cognitive-behavioral group therapy has significant effects on the improvement of relapse prevention skills and mental health in the addicts.

Keywords

• Cognitive-behavioral group therapy
• mental health
• relapse prevention
• addiction