The Comparison of Alexithymia and Emotions Control among Substance Abusers and Healthy People

• Main Authors: M.J Bagyan Kouleh Marz, M Narimani, S Soltani, A.R. Mehrabi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Drug Control Headquarters, Research and Education Office 2014-11-01
• Series: Research on Addiction
• Subjects: Alexithymia; Emotion Control; Addiction
• Online Access: http://www.etiadpajohi.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-43-9&slc_lang=en&sid=1

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to compare Alexithymia and emotional control among substance abusers and healthy people. Method: The research design was causal-comparative research design which is categorized as descriptive research method. The population included of all people who were referred to addiction treatment centers in Noor-Abad city (Delfan). The participants of the study comprised of 50 addicts under treatment and 50 healthy participants who were matched based on age, education level, social-economical status, and number of children selected by available sampling method. The alexithymia (TAS-20) and emotions control scales administered among both groups. Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference between addicts and non-addicts groups in terms of alexithymia and emotional control. In addition, difficulty in identifying of feelings, depression, anxiety and anger were the most important predictors of addiction severity. Conclusion: These results show that any difficulty in expressing emotions and disability in controlling of negative emotions (anger, depression, and anxiety) are risk factors for substance abuse.