The effectiveness of of cognitive-behavioral therapy on the general health and quality of life of patients with irritable bowel syndrome

One of the challenges of patients with irritable bowel syndrome is to reduce the quality of life and general health of patients. In the last decade, cognitive-behavioral therapy has been introduced as one of the effective treatments for many disorders. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on the general health and quality of life of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

The research is a semi-experimental pre-test and post-test with the control group. The statistical population included patients with irritable bowel syndrome who were in 2019. Sample size included 30 people from this community, who were selected by available sampling method and tested in two equal groups. The Global health questionnaire, Goldberg et al., and the quality of life of the world health organization were used. The experimental group received cognitive-behavioral therapy for 10 sessions of 90 minutes and the control group received no intervention. The data was analyzed using covariance analysis.

The results showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective in increasing general health (P = 0.001) and quality of life (P = 0.026). In other words, the average of general health and quality of life scores in the experimental group was improved in comparison with the control group.

It seems that by implementing cognitive-behavioral therapy, it is possible to improve the quality of life and general health in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.