Table 1: Baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of participants in both groups.
| Variables | EDW (N = 87) | Control (N = 78) | ||
| N (%) | M (SD) | N (%) | M (SD) | |
| Age (years) | 32.9 (6.7) | 31.7 (6.7) | ||
| Gender | ||||
| Males | 87 (100.0) | 71 (91.0) | ||
| Females | 0 (0.0) | 7 (9.0) | ||
| Marital status | ||||
| Single | 40 (46.0) | 42 (53.8) | ||
| Married | 36 (41.4) | 25 (32.1) | ||
| Divorced/Widow | 11 (12.6) | 11 (14.1) | ||
| Educational level | ||||
| Primary | 21 (24.1) | 31 (39.7) | ||
| Preparatory | 14 (16.1) | 5 (6.4) | ||
| Secondary | 31 (35.6) | 26 (33.3) | ||
| Associate degree | 7 (8.0) | 5 (6.4) | ||
| University or higher | 14 (16.1) | 11 (14.1) | ||
| Occupation | ||||
| Professional work | 8 (9.2) | 4 (5.1) | ||
| Commercial work | 4 (4.6) | 4 (5.1) | ||
| Occupational work | 57 (65.5) | 47 (60.3) | ||
| Unemployed | 15 (17.2) | 18 (23.1) | ||
| Student/House wife/others | 3 (3.4) | 5 (6.4) | ||
| Financial status† | ||||
| Not enough | 23 (26.7) | 25 (32.1) | ||
| Enough | 56 (65.1) | 52 (66.7) | ||
| More than enough | 7 (8.1) | 1 (1.3) | ||
| Substances abused‡ | ||||
| Cannabis | 66 (75.9) | 55 (70.5) | ||
| Bango | 19 (21.8) | 22 (28.2) | ||
| Heroin | 64 (73.6) | 63 (80.8) | ||
| Chemical preparations | 69 (79.3) | 63 (80.8) | ||
| Alcohol | 31 (35.6) | 35 (44.9) | ||
| Others | 15 (17.2) | 16 (20.5) | ||
| Duration of abuse (years) | 14.8 (10.0) | 13.7 (7.4) | ||
| No of quitting trials§ | 13.3 (23.3) | 13.8 (15.8) | ||
| No of hospital admission | 3.5 (4.1) | 4.4 (5.4) | ||
| Time period after last admission (days) | 20.4 (9.9) | 62.4 (72.0) | ||
EDW = Expressive Disclosure Writing; †One respondent in the EDW group had a missing value; ‡This was a multiple response question where individuals may endorse more than one choice; §One respondent in the control group had a missing value.