It is of interest to investigate the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program on stress and salivary cortisol among substance abuse patients. There were 60 drug addicts who were receiving treatment at the addiction centre. Samples are divided into 30 drug abuse patient experimental and 30 substance abuse patient control groups using the simple random sampling approach. Salivary cortisol, a pre-test stress biomarker, was measured and used to analyse the results. The MBSR programme was administered over thecourse of eight weeks, with two 1-hour sessions held each day, with a cap of 15 participants. The biomarker for stress (salivary cortisol) will be obtained once again at the end of the program to assess the post-test level of perceived stress and compare it to the results. Patients showed improvements in stress level (p < 0.05) following the 8-week MBSR program. The mean level of blood cortisol in the experimental group was 18.08 (3.62), which was dropped to 7.54 (1.29) before the intervention. The mean cortisol level in the experimental group differs by 10.54 (3.45) between pre and post intervention following the intervention (p value is < 0.005). Thus, there is a difference between the experimental conditions before and after the intervention. The mean serum cortisol level in the pre-test is 17.30 (2.34) and the mean serum cortisol level in the post test is 17.15 (2.31) in the control group (p value is > 0.005). Data shows that there is a significant difference between the groups. MBSR may be a beneficial intervention for reducing stress, in Patients taking treatment in de addiction centre.
Keywords: MBSR; salivary cortisol; substance abuse patients.
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