Changes in Coping Strategies over Time in a Residential Substance Use Disorder Treatment Population: A Preliminary Assessment

Comparison of coping strategies and emotion regulation tendencies among opium users, methadone maintenance treatment clients and normal individuals

“…In turn, lacking of proper social support would lead one to substance abuse as a strategy to cope with problems when faced with stressors. Taking into consideration the research data indicating that drug users utilize less effective coping strategies compared to normal population in the face of life stressors [14,15,19,22,33] along with the fact that coping strategies and emotional regulation tendencies could change over the course of time specially by receiving appropriate education and training [17,24], that receiving the coping and emotional regulation skills training would effectively help the population at the risk of drug intake both appealing to drug consumption (initiation, severity, continuation, and relapse) as a mean to reveal from cognitions and emotions associated with negative life events. The identification of the adolescent population at risk in schools could be the starting point in addressing the skill training programs as a preventive strategy which could be extended to enhance the treatment approach among older population as well to incorporate coping skills training in conjunction with pharmacological treatment and social/familial support.…”

“…Similarly, McConnell, Memetovic, and Richardson [8] found that while adaptive coping strategies were associated with lower tobacco and marijuana use, maladaptive coping strategies predicted tobacco and marijuana use among adolescents. Martindale et al [17], on the other hand, they demonstrated that the residential patients who were receiving substance abuse treatment attained improvements in coping skills after treatment. Maquez-Arrico, Benaiges and Adán [12] in their study with two groups of patients with substance use disorder -with vs. without schizophrenia-showed that compared to normal population, both groups used less of adaptive coping strategies.…”