Development and Psychometric Assessment of Lapse Management Program and Educational Content After Quitting in Patients with Substance Use Disorders

Background: Despite advances in the treatment of substance abuse disorders, some clients experience lapse and relapse after treatment. As a stage before relapse, the lapse is a major challenge in the treatment of addiction. Objectives: This study attempted to develop and psychometrically assess a lapse management program and its educational content after quitting in patients with substance use disorders. Methods: This study was performed in two parts. In the first part, the program and its educational content were designed, and in the second part, it was validated using the opinions of 10 experts in two phases. For program validation, face validity and content validity were used both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results: The lapse management program and its educational content were designed based on self-awareness skills in eight sessions. The validation results showed that the minimum and maximum CVR values for each component of the program were calculated as 0.8 and 1, respectively. Also, the minimum and maximum CVI values were 0.86 and 1, respectively. Moreover, the average content validity index for the entire program was 0.94. Conclusions: The results showed that the lapse management program and its educational content had a good face and content validity for recovering clients and enjoyed the necessary validity for educational, clinical, and research applications.