The effect of brief behavioral activation treatment on symptoms of depression, mental health and quality of life among the patients with opioid abuse

Background: Depression is one of the most common mental disorders comorbid with  with substance use disorder. This research was aimed to evaluate the effect of brief behavioral activation treatment on the symptoms of depression, mental health and quality of life among the patients with opioid use disorders. Methods: In a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design, 24 patients taking opiates were selected through convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was treated for two months. BDI-II, GHQ-28, WHOQOL-BREF were given to both groups before and after treatment and in the 2-month followup period. The results were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that brief behavioral activation treatment significantly reduced the symptoms of depression (P 0.05). Conclusion: brief behavioral activation treatment is capable of reducing the severity of symptoms of depression and improving the mental health of patients with substance use disorders.