Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Intervention for Health-Related Quality of Life in Drug-Dependent Males

BACKGROUND: Nowadays drug dependence has become one of the main concerns worldwide. Indeed, drug dependence and abuse have become personal, social and, health problems that intensively threat human resources. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in drug-dependent males. PATIENTS AND METHODS: An experimental research with pretest/posttest design and a control group was conducted on 49 drug-dependent males. The selected individuals were randomly allocated to the study groups (24 to the experimental and 25 to the control groups). Afterwards, the Short Form Health Survey for HRQOL (SF-36) questionnaire was completed by participants. Subsequently, the experiment group experienced eight 90-minute sessions of training in MBSR. At the end of the training, the subjects were evaluated once again by SF-36. The independent-samples t test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyses data. RESULTS: The results suggested that the mean differences between groups regarding scales of role emotional, vitality, mental health, social functioning, and bodily pain were statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Using MBSR is recommended for improving HRQOL in drug-dependent males who are undergoing treatment for their drug dependence in addiction treatment center; however, more studies concerning different drugs as well as drug dependence in women must be performed.