Effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on pain perception and metacognitive beliefs in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Background: The most common, costly, and debilitating functional gastrointestinal disorder is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on metacognitive beliefs and pain problems in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Methods: The study used a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and a threemonth follow-up with the control group. All patients with irritable bowel syndrome at Tehran Shariatee Hospital were included in the statistical population. The sample consisted of ۳۰ patients who were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups using the purposive sampling method. Before the intervention, the pre-test was held, after which the experimental group received cognitive-behavioral therapy in ۸ sessions of ۹۰ minutes, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Then, the post-test was administered and after three months of post-test implementation, the follow-up period was performed. The research tools included a metacognitive beliefs questionnaire and pain understanding. Data analysis was performed by SPSS.۲۲ software and univariate variance analysis. Results: The experimental group was ۳۳.۶ (۷.۸) years old, while the control group was ۳۵.۹ (۸.۴) years old. Both groups were homogenous in terms of gender, age and marital status. The findings showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective on metacognitive beliefs (P<۰.۰۱) and pain affect (P<۰.۰۱). Conclusion: It can be concluded that cognitive-behavioral therapy is effective in treating metacognitive beliefs and pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome, and that it can be used to help these patients.

Keywords:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Irritable Bowel Syndrome , Metacognition , Pain Perception