The Effect of Benson Relaxation on Quality of Life of Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common functional disorders of the lower gastrointestinal tract that is characterized by abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits. This disorder changes the quality of life of patients..
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Benson relaxation on quality of life of patients with irritable bowel syndrome..
This was a clinical trial study with 46 patients, who were randomly divided to two groups including Benson relaxation and control group. The experimental group exercised 20 minutes daily for three two months, while no intervention program was held for the control group. The data collection tools were a demographic form and SF-34 Questionnaire that were used to gather data one week before and two months after the intervention. Then data were analyzed using the SPSS version 19 software..
The results indicated the mean total quality of life score in test group after intervention was changed from 93.13 to 57.61 while the control group was changed from 105.65 to 96.43 (P ≤ 0.001). There was a significant difference in six dimensions of quality of life including dysphoria (P ≤ 0.001), social reaction (P ≤ 0.001), health worry (P ≤ 0.001), body image (P ≤ 0.001), interpersonal relation (P = 0.004) and activities interference (P = 0.001) between the two groups, but no significant difference was found in food abstinence (P = 0.244) and sexual worry (P = 0.830)..
The findings showed that Benson relaxation training might be an effective therapy for improving quality of life in patients with IBS..