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Objectives: Substance abuse is one of the most outstanding socio-psychological hazards that can easily wreck one’s personal, family and social life. Reality Therapy is a type of Cognitive rehabilitation (known as psychosocial rehabilitation), and the application of this method in the treatment of different disorders has recently been the topic of research. The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of group reality therapy on the reduction of stress, anxiety and depression in addicts.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study of pretest-posttest design, with a control group was conducted. The study population consisted of all addicts attending Tehran’s ‘Neda’ Rehab Clinic. First, the DASS-21 questionnaire was administered and then 40 people were selected from those who had scored average and higher. They were then randomly assigned to two test and control groups of 20 each. Analysis of co-variance was used to analyze the data, with which pretest scores were controlled, and the effect of the independent variable on posttest scores was evaluated.

Results: Following the intervention, there were significant decreases in the mean scores of all three variables, i.e. stress, anxiety and depression in the test group (P<0.05).

Discussion: Psychosocial rehabilitation based on reality therapy can be considered as an effective method for reducing stress, anxiety and depression in addicts and also as an adjunctive therapy in treating other ailments.