Effectiveness of Religious-Spiritual Group Therapy on Spiritual Health and Quality of Life in Methadone-treated Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Spiritual Health Research Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran

2 Tavallodi Dobareh Substance Abuse Treatment Center, Qom, Iran

3 Neuroscience Research Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Background: Spirituality is one of the most important factors that can contribute to the recovery of substance
use disorder (SUD). The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the religious-spiritual group
therapy on the spiritual health and the quality of life in methadone-treated patients.
Methods: This study was carried out in Qom City, Iran, in 2018. 72 methadone-treated patients were
randomly selected and assigned in two groups: the experimental group (which received religious-spiritual
therapy) and control group (which received no treatment). At the beginning of the study (pre-test), eight
weeks after the start of the study (post-test), and three months after the start of the study (follow-up test), all
participants completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF)
questionnaire and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). Participants in the experimental group received 8
sessions (90 minutes for each session) of spiritual and religious training, while the control group received no
religious-spiritual intervention; it just was trained with general information on addiction. Data were analyzed
using SPSS software and descriptive and inferential statistics methods.
Findings: The results of repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was no
significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the pretest, but religious-spiritual
training significantly increased spiritual health and the patients' quality of life (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Religious-spiritual education can improve the quality of life and spiritual well-being in
methadone-treated patients. The findings suggest that religious -spiritual education can be considered as an
inexpensive, accessible, useful, and effective treatment for SUD treatment

Keywords

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Addiction & Health
Volume 11, Issue 3
July 2019
Pages 156-164

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