The Effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy on Alexithymia, Emotion Regulation, and Psychological Capital of Male Substance Abusers Treated by Addiction Treatment Centers in Kerman

Background: Addiction is a psychiatric disorder with biological, psychological, and social aspects. Literatures indicated that alexithymia, emotional dysregulation, and low psychological capital affect substance abuse. This study investigated the effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy on alexithymia, emotional regulation, and psychological capital of male substance abusers.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2021 in Kerman, Iran using a pretest, post-test design with a control group. A single therapy center was randomly selected via the multi-stage cluster method from several substance abuse treatment centers. 50 people were randomly selected and allocated to experimental and control groups. The research instruments were questionnaires for alexithymia, emotional regulation, and psychological capital. After the pretest phase, the experimental group underwent 12 sessions of interpersonal psychotherapy. In the next step, the post-test was conducted and after 6 weeks the follow-up test was performed on the groups. The control group did not receive the treatment. Finally, the data obtained from 40 participants were analyzed using the MANCOVA test by SPSS25 statistical software.

Findings: Our findings indicated significant MANCOVA results for alexithymia (F=65.14 and P<0.05), emotion regulation (F=44.72 and P<0.05) and psychological capital (F=12.05 and P<0.05) showing a significant difference between the scores of dependent variables in the experimental group and control group.

Conclusion: The results showed that interpersonal psychotherapy improves the state of alexithymia, emotional regulation, and psychological capital in substance abusers. It can also be used as an effective intervention in addiction treatment centers.