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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2015, 17, 1 (pages: 91 - 98)

Subjective quality of life in drug addicted patients: A cross-treatment comparison

Ambroziak A.

Summary: Background: Previous research focused on indicating success rate of treatment in terms of withdrawal from addictive behavior. Patients' subjective experience was omitted. This study examines the relationship between treatment types and subjectively perceived quality of life (QoL). Methods: A total of 115 drug addicted persons voluntarily participated in the study. Experimental groups were recruited from clinics providing: individual out-patient treatment – IOT (n = 28); group out-patient treatment – GOT (n = 24); group in-patient treatment – GIT (n = 31). Control group – C (n = 32) was recruited from shelters for active drug users not receiving treatment. QoL was assessed with: Beck (1988) Hopelessness Scale; Cantril's (1965) Ladder; and Czapinski's (2005) tools measuring QoL. Sense of coherence was assessed with Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence Questionnaire SOC-29. Between-group differences in QoL and coherence were analyzed using ANCOVA with Scheffe post hoc comparisons. Results: Self-rating of QoL in treatment groups was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in controls. Between-treatment comparisons showed that GOT had significantly higher will to live (p = 0.015) and satisfaction with life (p = 0.002) than IOT participants. GOT also showed significantly higher sense of controllability (p = 0.022) than GIT. Conclusions: Participants of all analyzed types of drug addiction treatment had higher subjective QoL than active drug users. However, group out-patient treatment participants showed the greatest will and satisfaction of life, as well as sense of controllability.