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Chegeni M, Asgari M, Hassani-Abharian P, Karimi J. Effect of cognitive rehabilitation and Motivational Interviewing on drug craving and cognitive functions in male cannabis users. Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2025; 27 (2) :1-14
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1738-en.html

Cognitive rehabilitation aims to enhance cognitive functions through repeated practice, leveraging the principle of brain plasticity. Current cognitive training interventions hold the potential to mitigate specific cognitive deficits. Additionally, motivational interviewing is a recognized psychological intervention for cannabis use disorder, designed to increase motivation to cease or reduce usage. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation interventions and motivational interviewing in reducing craving and improving cognitive functions among male cannabis users.
Methods: This study employed a three-group experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up phases. Forty-five male cannabis users were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and randomly assigned to one of three groups: Motivational interviewing, cognitive rehabilitation,
or control. The instruments utilized included the visual cue test (induction), the go/no-go test, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the n-back task.
Results: The findings revealed significant differences among the three groups in at least one of the variables—craving, working memory, response inhibition, risky decision-making, and processing speed—across the three time periods (F=13.23, P=0.001). Both the cognitive rehabilitation and
motivational interviewing groups showed significant differences compared to the control group in the studied variables (P≥0.05). However, no significant differences were observed between the two intervention groups in any of the variables studied (P≤0.05).
Conclusion: Cognitive rehabilitation and motivational interviewing have demonstrated promising results in addressing the dual challenge of reducing craving and enhancing cognitive functions. These interventions pave the way for targeted and individualized treatments for cannabis users.