Effect of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) on Blood Cortisol and Cognitive-Emotion Regulation in Drug Abusers

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of compassion-focused therapy on blood cortisol and cognitive-emotion regulation among drug abusers. Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population consisted of all men with drug abuse referring to Torbat-e-Heydariyeh Adult Drug Abuse Clinic in 2018, 40 of whom were selected by simple random sampling for the experimental and control groups. The experimental group was trained for 10 sessions of 90 min, but the control group was on the waiting list and received no training. A demographic questionnaire and the cognitive-emotion regulation questionnaire of Garnefski were used for data collection before and after the intervention. Besides, the data on the in vitro serum levels of cortisol we gathered. The data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance in SPSS 24 software. Results: The results of the multivariate analysis of covariance showed that in the group of compassion-focused behavioral therapy, the intervention had a significant effect on blood cortisol and cognitive-emotion regulation at the posttest (P < 0.005). Conclusions: According to the findings, compassion-focused behavioral therapy was effective in reducing cortisol levels and elevating cognitive-emotion regulation among drug abusers.