THE COMPARISON OF MENTAL HEALTH IN OPIUM-ADDICTED MEN BEFORE AND AFTER METHADONE THERAPY IN PATIENTS REFERRED TO ADDICTION TREATMENT CENTERS OF SEMNAN FROM JANUARY 2017 TO JULY 2018

Background and Aim : Psychiatric disorders associated with addiction causes detrimental effects on physical, psychological, social, family health, and social communication issues and consequences of the disease result in very high costs for the governments. Therefore, the need to pay attention to the treatment of addiction is undeniable. One of the ways to treat addiction is methadone maintenance therapy, which is aimed at reducing harm. The purpose of this study was to compare the mental health of opium-addicted men before and after methadone therapy.Methods : In this study, 80 male addicts between 20 and 70 years of age referring to the addiction treatment centers who had a continuous history of opium use for 6 months and also had no specific disease history were selected randomly and voluntarily. Then, toxicology tests of alkaline and acid extraction were performed on their urine specimens to separate morphine and other drugs. After examining the samples by TLC method and analyzing the drugs using HPLC, people who had psychiatric drugs, narcotics, or other stimulants other than morphine in their urine samples, were excluded from the study and other people were replaced. Then their mental health was measured by the SCL90 questionnaire. After six months of methadone therapy, these toxicology tests were repeated and those who had only methadone in their urine (62 patients) completed the SCL90 questionnaire. Then, the data were collected and analyzed by SPSS 18 software in two descriptive and inferential statistics sections by the t-test and one-way ANOVA. Results : The findings showed that the highest percentage of respondents (43%) were between the ages of 20 and 30 and had elementary education (30%) and diploma (55%). Most of the subjects (54%) had a history of opium use between 1 and 5 years. Based on the results of covariance analysis, methadone therapy was effective in reducing the symptoms of mental health indicators, aggression, anxiety, depression, physical distress, paranoid thoughts, interpersonal sensitivity, psychosis, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobia, and GSI mental health index.Conclusion : Methadone therapy had a positive effect on the mental health status of addicts and has reduces the side effects of withdrawal and deprivation and has an indirect effect on progression in the treatment and resolution of psychological symptoms such as depression

کلیدواژه ها:

Addiction ، Methadone Therapy ، Mental Health ، Addiction Treatment Clinic of Semnan