Community Therapy as complementary care for drug users and their contributions to anxiety and depression^a

Abstract

Objective

to evaluate the contributions of Community Therapy on anxiety and depression among psychoactive drug users.

Methods

a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 21 men living in three mental health institutions focused on recovery from chemical dependence, who underwent six rounds of community therapy as an intervention process in 2018. Data collection took place in three stages from the use of a semi-structured questionnaire and two Beck anxiety and depression inventories. The nonparametric statistical method was used to compare the results.

Results

depression was present in 76% of users and anxiety in 48%. Among the participants in the yarning circles, there was a reduction in depression levels during and after the intervention process (p=0.016; p=0.004) when compared to baseline and to maintain the average T1 and T2 anxiety score (9.90; 9.95) compared to T0 (13.10).

Conclusion and implications for practice

the use of community therapy has shown positive results on anxiety and depression, and therefore is considered in this study as an important mental health care tool to be used by nurses, aiming to expand their care to people in a situation of chemical dependence, also contributing to treatment adherence.

Keywords:
Therapeutic Community; Mental health; Complementary Therapies; Drug Users