Effects of the art of photography on addiction treatment

Objectives: The aim of this study is to create a rehabilitation program that can contribute to the treatment processes through the "Photography Art" of adult cases with substance abuse and having medical treatment and to evaluate the effectiveness of this program.mWithin the scope of the research, T.C. EGE University has received substance abuse treatment at the Institute for Substance Abuse, Toxicology and Drug Sciences and has been assessed adult ongoing adolescents aged 18-40. During the 5 weeks of photography, the subjects were given professional training and photographed collective tours. As a result, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, treatment motivation, to improve the level of life quality and to lower levels of alexithymia and anger were aimed at minimum level. Methods: 19 substances were applied to study at the Ege University Substance Addiction Toxicology and Drug Science Institute. Participations in the study was determined on the basis of voluntarism and 9 patients who were selected as unselected were subjected to photography rehabilitation and medical treatment for three months. In addition, the other 10 drug addicts continued their medical treatment with their medical treatment and did not receive rehabilitation treatment. The change in mental status of all participants before and after treatment was assessed by means of psychometric (Beck Depression Scale, Beck Alexithymia Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, WHOQOL-BREF (Multi-Dimensional Anger Scale), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Motivation Questionnaire Treatment) measures and these characteristics were compared in terms of applied treatments. Findings: Participants ranging in age range 18-40 had multiple substance use histories. As a result of the pre-study psychometric evaluation, psychometric properties (treatment motivation, depression scores, anxiety scores, alexithimia scores, self esteem scores and quality of life scores) did not differ. Four months later, the psychometric evaluation revealed that psychometric properties did not differ between the experimental and control groups except for the scale (p = 0.047). In addition, there was no difference between the experimental and control groups in the pre- and post-measurement differences (p = 0.054) of the difficulty in recognizing the scores. According to the Wilcoxon test for the experimental group, the psychometric properties did not differ after treatment but the anxiety (p = 0.049) and emotional strain scores (p = 0.032) were more increased after the treatment than the Wilcoxon test for the control group. Conclusion: It has been shown that different artistic activities have positive effects on treatment in rehabilitation of substance abuse. Contrary to other studies, in addition to medical treatment in this study, photography rehabilitation did not change mental health of substance addiction cases. However, it has been shown that certain psychopathological features (difficulty in recognizing anxiety and feelings) may increase even more after treatment in the group receiving medical treatment alone. For this reason, it can be said that in drug addicts, photography rehabilitation may be useful in reducing some psychological problems that may increase after medical treatment.