Psychological Needs of Women Treated with Methadone: Mixed Method Study

ABSTRACT

Methadone treatment is a conventional treatment with a harm-reduction approach used in addiction treatment. Psychological needs are important factors affecting the retention in treatment for these clients. The present study aimed to explore the psychological needs of women treated with methadone. This research was a concurrent mixed-method design. In the quantitative part, 138 female clients were selected using convenience sampling method and were assessed by the Basic Psychological Needs Scale. In the qualitative part, 14 female clients interested in participating in the study were selected using purposive sampling and qualitative data were collected using face-to-face, deep, and semistructured interviews. The qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, descriptive, and inferential analysis by SPSS software version 25, respectively. The results obtained in the qualitative part consisted of 288 codes, seven subcategories and three major categories including (i.e., family acceptance, need to comfort, and being independent). The quantitative findings revealed that autonomy, competence, and dependence among the clients were above the moderate. The results showed that female drug users throughout the methadone treatment process require the continued support of family and community to cover the psychological needs for retention in treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychological needs
• women
• methadone maintenance therapy
• mixed methods
• content analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Deputy for Research and Technology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences for cooperating in this research. We thank all the participants in the study. All authors contributed equally to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Deputy for Research and Technology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 95093). The coast of the payment is spent on the design and implementation of the study.