Comparing of Early Maladaptive Schemas between Healthy and Addicted Men

Background: Early maladaptive schemas are self-defeating emotional and cognitive patterns that develop early in life and repeat during the life cycle. They may cause a lot of psychological disorders including anxiety, depression, and drug abuse. Regarding to the importance of the prevention and treatment of addiction and regarding to obscurity of schemas about addiction, we compared the schemas of addicted and non-addicted men. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 205 addicted and non-addicted men were selected in the city of Kerman through cluster sampling. To collect information, a questionnaire with acceptable validity and reliability consisting of demographic information and early maladaptive schemas was used. Data analysis was performed with SPSS-17 software.Results: Totally, 96 addicted and 106 non-addicted men with a mean age of 33.3±9.8 years participated in the study. There were significant differences between early maladaptive schemas in two groups of addicted and non-addicted men (p=0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that enmeshment, emotional deprivation, and vulnerability to harm or illness maladaptive schemas can predict addiction (p=0.001).Conclusion: According to this study, the most important schemas for addicted men are emotional deprivation, self-sacrifice, emotional inhibition, unrelenting standards, entitlement, insufficient self-control/self-discipline, and disconnection as well as enmeshment, vulnerability to harm or illness, and emotional deprivation predictor schemas that require special notion from related institutions and addiction therapist for addiction rehabilitation and prevention.