IMPULSIVITY, DECISION MAKING AND ANXIETY AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between impulsivity, Decision Making and Anxiety in individuals with substance use disorder, with a particular focus on the mediating role of Decision making. A cross-sectional, quantitative study approach was employed. The sample comprised 250 male participants recruited from rehabilitation centers. Impulsivity was assessed using the composite scale, of Barret Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) Decision Making was measured through the Decision-Making Questionnaire (DMQ), and Anxiety was evaluated using a Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HARS), all of which demonstrated satisfactory reliability. SPSS was used to analyze the data, including regression, mediation analysis, Pearson correlation, and descriptive statistics. The findings demonstrated a powerful and positive correlation between impulsivity or anxiety, suggesting that people with more impulsive tendencies are more likely to have elevated anxiety symptoms. Additionally, it was discovered that impulsivity was a major predictor of poor decision making, indicating that impulsive people typically make less logical and riskier decisions. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between decision-making and anxiety, indicating that deficiencies in decision-making processes lead to higher levels of psychological distress. Crucially, mediation analysis verified that relationship between impulsivity or anxiety was mediated in part by decision-making. This implies that impulsivity has an indirect impact on anxiety through maladaptive decision-making behaviors in addition to having a direct impact. A consistent and theoretically significant pattern of correlations between the investigated variables was found by the statistical analysis. According to correlational results, impulsivity and anxiety were positively and strongly correlated, indicating that people with more impulsive tendencies also showed increased levels of psychological distress.