Psychological well-being of substance use patient: Role of religious therapy as the treatment

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychological well-being of substance use patients in comparison of combined religious therapy and pharmacotherapy effects with that of pharmacotherapy effects alone and also to assess the psychological well-being of drug addicts in comparison of demographics characteristics. METHODS: This experimental study was conducted at Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat from July 5(th) 2016 to July 25(th) 2017. A sample of 140 drug addicted patients was taken from different hospital. The pre and post-test of experimental and control group was done. Experimental group received standard pharmacotherapy along with religious therapy while patients in the control group only induced standard pharmacotherapy. The effectiveness of therapy was judged on their psychological well-being using California Psychological Inventory Well-being sub-scale.. RESULTS: The results of the study confirmed that there was significant difference in the psychological well-being of control and experimental group (p-value <0.01). After the treatment a difference exists in the means of control and experimental (16.24 and 26.44 respectively) groups. An increase in the psychological well-being of those having religious therapy comparing to those not having religious therapy was observed. Further, comparing the demographic variables the means indicated that treatment affected all age groups, marital status and education level equally. Whereas, in the rural area (mean, 27.04) psychological well-being was better than the urban (mean=26.11) and with the income levels of 21,000 to 30,000 (mean, 27.57) there was more improvement as compared with other income levels (mean, 26.35 and mean, 26.03). CONCLUSION: The religious therapy had a significant therapeutic effect on psychological well-being of the substance use patients and it is equally effective for all age group, marital status and educational level.