The Role of Self-compassion, Cognitive Self-control, and Illness Perception in Predicting Craving in People With Substance Dependency

Objective: Craving is the central core of addiction and the reason for substance abuse continuation and also returning to addiction after treatment. In order to identify the effecting factors on craving, this study was performed to determine the role of self-compassion, cognitive self-control and illness perception in predicting the craving levels in people with substance dependency.  Methods: This research was a correlational study. The statistical population included all thepeople with substance dependency referring to Shiraz addiction treatment centers from July to September 2013. One hundred and fifty people from this population were selected by multistage cluster random sampling method. Having conducted clinical interviews, they were being asked to response the self-compassion, cognitive self-control, illness perception, and craving questionnaires. Collected data were analyzed by tests of Pearson correlation and multivariate regression using SPSS 18.0 software. Results: The findings showed that craving was positively correlated with self-judgment (r=0.21 P<0.05), and negatively correlated with self-compassion (r= -0.31 P<0.001), cognitive self-control (r= -0.18 P<0.05), and illness coherence (r=-0.16 P<0.05) as one component of illness perception. Results of the regression analyses showed that 10% of craving variance was explained by self-compassion, which was one of the components of self-compassion and 3% of its variance explained by cognitive-self-control.   Conclusion: The results of this study showed that self-compassion and cognitive self-control are predictors of craving in people with substance dependency.