Recovery Anchors: Social and Psychological Buffers Against Relapse in Drug Addiction

Abstract

Background: Relapse is a complicated process to reiterate. A lot of biological, psychological, and social variables affect it. Objectives: The present research study aimed to examine the impact of resilience and social support (SS) on relapse periods of drug abuse. Method: A total of 300 drug users who relapsed within a year following medical treatment were included in this study. Participants range in age from 20 to 48 years. Social support and resilience were assessed using self-reported measures. The hypotheses were tested using descriptive statistics and a decision tree model (classification and regression trees) with SPSS 26. Results & Discussion: Both research hypotheses are accepted. A strong protective effect is shown by high social support (>28.00) delaying relapse by significantly (8-12 months) and prolonging the time to relapse to 100%. On the opposite side, early relapse (0-4 months) is characterized in individuals with low social support (≤28.00), particularly those with low resilience (≤12.50) i.e. 68.5%. Low social support, however, does not completely offset the harmful effect of low support, but resilience does moderate the effect and delays relapse out to 4-8 months for those with intermediate resilience (≥12.50). Conclusion: In conclusion, this study highlights the significance of social support and resilience in predicting the likelihood of relapse in individuals in drug addiction treatment. Social support is the most important predictor, and higher levels significantly delay relapse. Resilience is a major moderator, although being secondary, particularly for individuals with limited social support.