Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) on Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral activation on Men with Substance Abuse

Introduction: Acceptance and commitment (ACT) and dialectical behavior (DBT) are commonly grouped under name the third wave of cognitive behavior therapy and are based on acceptance- and mindfulness-based approaches rather than challenging them.  The purpose of present study was to compare effectiveness of these two approached on behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in men with substance abuse. Materials and Methods: In this semi-experimental study, 60 men were selected using available sampling method among all men with substance abuse referred to Drug Rehabilitation Centers in Kermanshah City in 2017-18. The participants were randomly divided into three groups of 20, two experimental groups and one control group. Participants in acceptance and commitment and dialectic behavioral received 10 and 12 sessions of intervention respectively and control group received nothing. The instrument for collecting data was a behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation scale, which was performed in all three stages of pre-test, post-test and three-month follow up on subjects. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance post hoc test. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between mean scores of pre-test, post-test and follow up values of experimental groups (p£0.001). However, this finding was not observed between two experimental groups. Conclusions: The results showed that men with substance abuse may benefit from recent acceptance- and mindfulness-based approaches including acceptance and commitment and dialectic behavioral therapy.