Stress Coping of Patients with Substance use Disorder in Latvia

Stress is a part of our everyday life and it plays an important role in causing various diseases. Studies related to aetiology of using pshyhoactive substances have shown that stress is one of strongest factor that provokes the use of addictive substanceswhichemphasizes necessity of research aboutstress copingtypes for patients with addiction. Purpose of study is to examine stress coping among patients with substance use disorders in Latvia.2 research tools were used: a demographic questionnaire and “The Ways of coping scale” (Folkman& Lazarus, 1985). The results show that women use emotion-oriented stress coping. For women who have completed treatment, more specific ways of stress coping are accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance and positive reappraisal. Among men, the dominant stress coping strategy is problem-oriented stress coping. Male patients who have completed treatment use more accepting responsibility and planful problem solving.