Cognitive coping strategies, psychological symptoms and quality of life among individuals with cannabis dependence seeking psychiatric treatment

Pages: 1806-1812
Sarin Dominic and Masroor Jahan (Department of Clinical Psychology, Ranchi Institute of NeuroPsychiatry and Allied Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand)

The capacity of an individual to regulate one’s emotion, the ways by which it is done and its relationship with pathological symptoms of psychiatric disorders has been a subject of interest to scientists in the past three decades. People who are dependent on psychoactive substances tend to use the substance more, while facing negative life events as they are unable to regulate one’s emotions. The inability to cope results in more unpleasant symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. The present research was carried out to investigate the cognitive coping strategies used by dependent cannabis users while facing negative life events, the level of psychological symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression experienced by them and its relationship with quality of life. A cross-sectional comparative research design with thirty individuals who are seeking psychiatric treatment for cannabis dependence and thirty healthy individuals was carried out. The groups were compared on domains of Cognitive Emotion Regulation questionnaire (CERQ), Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS) and WHO-Quality of life Scale (WHO-QOL). Individuals who are dependent on cannabis reported a higher level of depression, anxiety and stress and poorer psychological quality of life comparing to healthy individuals. Further Cannabis users were found to readily engage in maladaptive cognitive coping strategies of rumination, catastrophizing and other’s blame while facing negative life events than normal controls. Significant positive correlation was found between frequency of use of maladaptive coping strategies and psychological symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. The elevation of psychological symptoms were associated with poor health and psychological quality of life among dependent Cannabis users.