ABSTRACT
Introduction: Substance abuse is the most common psychological disorders. Its side effects are not only related to the user but also effect their spouses and other family members
Objective: This study was conducted to determine the self- esteem, general well being and marital satisfaction of women having spouses who are substance abusers
Materials and Methods: This research is a cross sectional study. The experimental group included spouses of substance abusing men who voluntarily referred to addiction control centers in Rasht and the Control group consisted of married women referring to health care centers in Rasht. For data collection, three standard psychological questionnaires including GHQ 28 [general well being score]; Enrich [Marital satisfaction score], Cooper Smith [Self esteem score] and also a personal demographic questionnaire were used. From all qualified individuals, 18 wives of addicted men in experimental group and 24 wives of non-addicted men in control group were chosen through simple sampling, Information was collected by the psychologist or educated general physician by referring to addiction control centers and health care centers. Data was analyzed by SPSS 11.5 software and T test
Result: Demographic characteristics such as family income, occupation, housing condition, place of living and presence of disease were the same in both groups. The wives of addicted men showed significantly higher level of somatic symptoms [t=2.25, P=0.03], anxiety and insomnia[t=3.73, P=0.001] and depression [t=4.04, P=0.0001] than the control group. Partners of addicted men also had significantly lower levels of self- esteem [t=-3.61, P=0.0001] and marital satisfaction [t=-4/71, P=0.0001]
Conclusion: It seems that addicted men and their spouses affect each other and addicts significantly effect general areas of life. Based on the results of this study alike other western studies indicate that having an addicted husband significantly decrease his wife's quality of life. Therefore, it's necessary to pay more attention to the results of these studies so that authorities better understand and decrease the life difficulties of the families of addicted men