Comparing the Effectiveness of Metacognitive Therapy and Problem Solving Skills on Psycho-Social Adaptation in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Using new psychological approaches along with biological treatments is an effective measure for the psycho-social adaptation of patients; so the present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy and problem-solving skills on the psycho-social adaptation in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

This study was a semi-experimental type of pre-test-post-test with a follow-up period. The current research population included all patients with irritable bowel syndrome who referred to the specialized and super-specialized center of Milad hospital in the first six months of 2021. From the target population, 45 qualified people who volunteered to participate in the research were selected by purposive sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. Data collection tool was Drugatis (1986) psycho-social adjustment scale. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 22 software and variance analysis test with repeated measurement at the significance level of α=0.05.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups; And the treatment of metacognition and problem solving skills was effective in increasing the psycho-social adaptation of patients with irritable bowel syndrome and these results continued in the follow-up period (P<0.05). Also, the results of Benferroni's post hoc test indicated that there was no significant difference between the psycho-social adjustment scores in the two groups of problem solving skills and metacognition therapy (P<0.05).

Training of metacognitive therapy and problem solving skills can be used as a complementary treatment method along with medical methods for psycho-social adaptation of patients with irritable bowel syndrome.