Investigating the Dimensions of Quality of Life, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Substance Craving in People With Opioid Use Disorders, Methadone-Maintained Subjects, and Narcotics Anonymous Members Publisher



Dalili N¹ ; Motevaseli E² ; Tehranidoost M^{3, 4} ; Zarrindast MR^{1, 5} ; Kataj PD¹ ; Vousooghi N^{4, 6} Show Affiliations
Source: Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Published:2025

Abstract

Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major public health concern, and different approaches for its treatment such as maintenance therapy or group therapy have been proposed. The effectiveness of these therapies in the improvement of the psychological and mental state of the patients is always a topic of research and evaluation. This study aimed to compare the dimensions of quality of life, depression, anxiety, stress, and substance control-related factors in OUD subjects and those who have entered methadone maintenance treatment or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) group therapy in comparison to control subjects who had never used opioids. Methods: Participants (n = 80) in this cross-sectional study were all male subjects comprised of four groups (n = 20 in each group): OUD subjects, NA members with a history of OUD, methadone-maintained individuals previously involved with OUD and a healthy control group. The three first groups were recruited from substance use disorder treatment centers and community groups in Tehran, Iran. All participants completed the validated Farsi version of questionnaires WHOQOL-BREF, DAS-21, and DDQ. MANOVA followed by LSD was used for assessing the differences between groups. Results: Data showed that for the DASS-21 scale, the differences between OUD subjects with each of the other three groups for all variables of the scale were statistically significant except for the difference between OUD and MMT subjects for the stress variable that was not significant. For the DDQ and WHOQOL-BREF scales, the differences between the OUD group and NA or control subjects for all variables of the scales were significant. However, no significant differences were observed between OUD and MMT groups in terms of these variables. Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that entering NA programs may be a more effective treatment option than consuming methadone for individuals with OUD in terms of improvement in the mental and psychological state of the patient which may need to be further evaluated in the future. © 2025 Iran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.