An Intervention And Research On The Effect Of Sources Of Meaning And Meaning In Life On Relapse Tendency Among Drug Abstainers

Due to the high rate of relapse after treatment, effectiveness of current substance abuse treatment programs are being questioned. It’s crucial to clarify the cause of relapse and to improve the effectiveness of addiction treatment programs. Existential theory and previous qualitative research have suggested that lacking of life meaning caused drug addiction and relapse, so it’s essential to enhance the meaning in life for drug abstainers.324(261 valid)female drug abstainers subjects completed the scales(Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Sources of Meaning Profile-Revised and Relapse Tendency Questionnaire.) to investigate relation among meaning in life, sources of meaning and relapse tendency.The results revealed that(1) Self-growth(Source of Meaning) of the female drug abstainers have positive and significant effect on their meaning in life; Life enjoyment(Source of Meaning) of the female drug abstainers have positive and significant effect on their meaning in life.(2) Duration of drug use、social attention and meaning in life have significant effect on their relapse tendencyBase on the above research and the theory of frankl, we conduct group intervention.11 drug abstainers with low level of the meaning in life were chosen to be the intervention group on voluntary principle. And another 10 score-matching drug abstainers were chosen to be the control group. After the intervention, we performed an analysis of variance(ANOVA), comparing meaning in life, general health, social support, Sources of Meaning and relapse tendency between the pretest score and the posttest scores of intervention group and controls group. Also group counseling therapeutic factors questionnaire was used on intervention group.The results revealed that(1) the posttest score in meaning in life and social support of the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group after treatment and after one month treatment; The posttest score in relapse tendency of the intervention group was significantly lower than that of the controlgroup. But the differents are are significant after one month. No significant change was found in the general health and Sources of Meaning of the intervention group.(2) Group counseling therapeutic factors playing their role are arranged in a row of emotional catharsis, the corrective recapitulation of primary family experience,existential factors, interpersonal learning, development of socializing technique,instillation of hope, group cohesiveness and self-awareness according to their significance.