IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i19p10387-d648770.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inducing Effects of Illegal Drugs to Improve Mental Health by Self-Regulation Therapy: A Pilot Study

Author

Listed:
  • Salvador Amigó

    (Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatments, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

Background: This study consists of a brief psychological intervention, which uses Self-Regulation Therapy (SRT, procedure based on suggestion and classical conditioning), to improve coping with stress and emotionality by reproducing the positive effects of illegal drugs: cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy. Method: 15 volunteers (8 males, 7 females), with a mean age of 24.6 (SD = 4.4), underwent intervention to improve their coping with stress and emotionality using SRT. They carried out pre- and post-intervention scores for 10 days and during a 4-week follow-up. The employed instruments were: BSS (Barber Suggestibility Scale); COPE (Coping Skills Inventory), and PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule). Results: SRT was superior to non-intervention for the 4 coping strategies ( η 2 = 0.829, 0.453, 0.411 and 0.606) and for positive ( η 2 = 0.371) and negative emotionality ( η 2 = 0.419). An improvement in scores was evidenced in the follow-up scores compared to the pre-intervention measures. Conclusions: This study shows for the first time that it is possible to use illegal drugs, considered harmful to public health, to improve young people’s coping capacity and emotionality by reproducing their positive effects with SRT.

Suggested Citation

  • Salvador Amigó, 2021. "Inducing Effects of Illegal Drugs to Improve Mental Health by Self-Regulation Therapy: A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-12, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10387-:d:648770
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10387/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10387/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10387-:d:648770. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.