The effectiveness of metacognitive therapy on reducing psychological distress and alexithymia in patients with functional dyspepsia

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in reducing psychological distress and alexithymia in patients with functional dyspepsia. This research was a semi-experimental type with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group with a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population included all patients with functional dyspepsia referred to Shariati Hospital in the period of 2020-2021. The statistical sample included 30 of these patients who were selected purposefully. Then, 15 people were randomly assigned to each of the experimental and control groups. The intervention group received Wells's (2004) metacognitive therapy, 8 sessions of 45 minutes, and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Data were collected using psychological distress questionnaire (DASS-21) and Toronto alexithymia (TAS 20) (1994). The research data was analyzed by variance analysis with repeated measurements. The results showed that psychological distress scores generally decreased from the pre-test to the post-test and follow-up; Also, the difference between the pre-test and post-test stage (p>0.05, d=-8.79) and follow-up pre-test (p>0.05, d=-10.6) is significant. In the alexithymia variable, the difference between the pre-test and post-test stage (p<0.05, d=8.89) and the follow-up pre-test (p<0.05, d=13.7) is significant. It shows the effect of research intervention in reducing psychological distress and alexithymia, it can be concluded that this intervention has been effective in reducing distress and alexithymia in patients with functional dyspepsia.