Journal of health research in community

Introduction and purpose: Religiosity and spirituality diminish daily stress and tendency towards substance use. Today, more people are becoming inclined towards the opinion that spirituality could effectively treat the symptoms of neuroses and mental disorders. This study aimed to determine the relationship between spiritual health and mental health in patients undergoing methadone maintenance treat-ment (MMT) in private and government sectors in Sari, Iran.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 123 men and women undergoing MMT. Data were collected using spiritual and mental health questionnaires. Data analysis was performed in SPSS 18 using two sample t-test and Spearman’s correlation-coefficient.
Results: In this study, mean scores of spiritual health and mental health were 43.29 and 41.26, respectively. Our findings were indicative of a significant correlation between spiritual health and mental health in patients undergoing MMT. The most significant correlation was observed between spiritual health and social function, while the least significant correlation was observed between spiritual health and physical problems. Moreover, no significant relationship was found between marital status, number of children, and gender with spiritual health.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, spiritual health could positively affect mental health. Therefore, spirituality could promote the mental health of patients with addiction, improve mental disorders, and diminish the tendency towards substance abuse.