Evaluation of the metacognitive model and automatic thoughts and stress coping in patients with heroin use disorder

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of heroin use disorder on automatic thoughts, metacognition and coping with stress. Method: The study consists of 43 participants who were diagnosed as Heroin Use Disorder in outpatient or inpatient treatment centers of private and state hospitals between the ages of 18-65 and 43 control group participants who were not diagnosed as "drug use disorder". The participants were given the MCQ-30, the Coping with Stress Scale, the Automatic Thoughts Scale, the Consent form and the Sociodemographic Information Form. Independent t-test analysis was performed in two comparisons. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between the research variables. Result: According to the research findings, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of coping with stress and metacognition. The frequency of negative automatic thoughts was higher in the group with heroin use disorder. According to the results of the comparisons among the people who are diagnosed with heroin use disorder; Group therapy and individual therapy support have been found to increase the use of functional coping strategies in terms of coping with Substance Use Disorder and decrease the frequency of negative automatic thoughts in these individuals. It was determined that metacognition was affected by education and age variables in the group with heroin use disorder. As a result of the correlation analysis, a significant positive correlation was found between the age of onset of the heroin use and the sub-dimensions of coping with stress. There was significant relationship between coping with stress and duration of education. Conclusion: It has been found that individuals with heroin use disorder are more prone to negative thinking. The hypothesis was supported by results showing that the age of onset heroin use and duration of education were effective in developing functional coping styles and awareness. It has been determined that cognitive processes and coping capacity of individuals with substance abuse disorder have improved with psychotherapy support. Key words: Heroin, Coping with stress, Metacognition, Automatic thought