Comparison of the Effectiveness of Reality Therapy and Compassionate Focused Therapy in the Reduction of Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Physical Symptoms in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome is the most common digestive system disorder. Despite the long period of study in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, only a small number of treatments have proven effective. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of reality therapy and compassion-focused therapy in the reduction of depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

The present study was conducted on 45 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (diagnosed by a gastroenterologist applying the Rome III criteria) who were assigned to two experimental groups: reality therapy (n=15) and compassion-focused therapy (n=15), as well as the control group (n=15). The experimental groups received eight sessions of reality therapy and compassion-focused therapy. All three groups responded to the Severity of Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS-SI) and Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale(DASS-42)  as pre-post and follow-up tests.

The results of the repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated a significantly lower mean score in depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms among the experimental group in the post-test. The follow-up test administered eight weeks after the post-test did not show any change in the results.

The obtained results supported the effectiveness of reality therapy and compassion-focused therapy in the reduction of depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. There was also no significant difference in the efficacy of these two treatments.