Comparison of the effectiveness of metacognitive and analytical cognitive therapy on reducing anxiety in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy and cognitive-analytical therapy in reducing anxiety in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This research was a semi-experimental type of research with a pre-test, post-test, and 1-month follow-up period with a control group. The statistical population included all patients with irritable bowel syndrome who were referred to Shariati Hospital in the period of 2020-2021. The statistical sample included 45 of these patients who were selected purposefully. Then, 15 people were randomly assigned to each of the experimental and control groups. The first group received 8 sessions of metacognitive therapy and the second group received 16 sessions of analytical cognitive therapy each once a week, and the control group was placed on the waiting list. The data were collected using the anxiety, stress, and depression scale of Leviband et al. (1995) (DASS-21). The research data was analyzed by mixed variance analysis (with repeated measurements). The results showed that in the post-test, there is a significant difference in anxiety between the two interventions of metacognitive therapy and cognitive-analytical therapy (p<0.05); On the other hand, a statistically significant difference was reported between metacognitive therapy and cognitive-analytical therapy with the control group (P<0.05). In other words, both methods have an effect on reducing anxiety and these two interventions have a significant difference in terms of effectiveness on this variable in patients with irritable bowel syndrome; These results were also seen in the follow-up of both interventions (p<0.05). It is concluded that both metacognitive therapy and analytical cognitive therapy were able to reduce anxiety, But cognitive analytical therapy was more effective in reducing anxiety; Therefore, this treatment can be used in the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.