Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Cessation in Marijuana Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Marijuana Use Disorder (MUD) comorbid anxiety and depression symptoms and cessation. Method: Fifty MUD patients were selected. The patients were randomly divided into interventional and control groups. The experimental group was treated with 12 weekly sessions of the ACT, and the control group received psycho education with the same duration. The tools used in this study included the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the marijuana abstinence urine kit. Data were analyzed with SPSS (V.26). Results: Abstinence rates in the ACT group compared to the control at the post-test (65% vs. 25%), and at the follow-up period (55% vs.15%) showed higher effectiveness for ACT (P<0.05). Also, among those who had lapsed, participations in the ACT group had fewer days than the control group about marijuana consuming (p <0.05). In the post-test and follow-up, anxiety and depression scores and abstinence rates in the ACT were respectively lower and higher compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: ACT can lead to lower consuming rates and a higher cessation rate in the MUD. It can also improve psychiatric symptoms in these patients.