Effectiveness of Analytical Group Therapy in Perceived Stress, Severity of Gastrointestinal Symptoms, and Perfectionism among Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Health Psychology, Kish International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kish Island, Iran

2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Psychology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

Abstract

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic gastrointestinal dysfunction. Patients experience abdominal pain and different intestinal symptoms in the absence of any structural or biological abnormalities.
 
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an analytical treatment group on perceived stress, the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms, and perfectionism in patients with IBS.
 
Methods: A pretest-posttest design with follow-up and a control group was used in this semi-experimental investigation. Patients with IBS who were referred to medical centers in Tehran, Iran, during 2019 were included in the study's statistical population, with 68 patients chosen using a convenience sampling method. Among them, 20 patients were assigned to analytical therapy (n=10) and the control groups (n=10) using a simple random sampling method. The required data were selected using the perceived stress scale, multidimensional perfectionism scale, and IBS symptom severity index. The data was analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS software (version 22).
 
Results: The results showed that analytical group therapy significantly reduced perceived stress (P<0.001), perfectionism (P<0.001), and severity of gastrointestinal symptoms (P<0.001) in patients with IBS.
 
Conclusion: It can be concluded that analytical group therapy is effective in perceived stress, perfectionism, and severity of symptoms of IBS; moreover, analytical group therapy can be used to reduce the problems of patients with IBS.
 

Keywords


Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

1. Mathur MB, Epel E, Kind S, Desai M, Parks CG, Sandler DP, Khazeni N. Perceived stress and telomere length: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and methodologic considerations for advancing the field. Brain, behavior, and immunity. 2016;54:158-69.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2016.02.002
PMid:26853993 PMCid:PMC5590630
 
2. Cavallo P, Carpinelli L, Savarese G. Perceived stress and bruxism in university students. BMC research notes. 2016;9(1):1-6.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-016-2311-0
PMid:28003024 PMCid:PMC5178076
 
3. Lembo AJ, Lacy BE, Zuckerman MJ, Schey R, Dove LS, Andrae DA, Davenport JM, McIntyre G, Lopez R, Turner L, Covington PS. Eluxadoline for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea. New England Journal of Medicine. 2016;374(3):242-53.
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1505180
PMid:26789872
 
4. hafran R, Coughtrey A, Kothari R. New frontiers in the treatment of perfectionism. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy. 2016;9(2):156-70.
https://doi.org/10.1521/ijct.2016.9.2.156
 
5. Knowles SR, Austin DW, Sivanesan S, Tye-Din J, Leung C, Wilson J, Castle D, Kamm MA, Macrae F, Hebbard G. Relations between symptom severity, illness perceptions, visceral sensitivity, coping strategies and well-being in irritable bowel syndrome guided by the common sense model of illness. Psychology, health & medicine. 2017;22(5):524-34.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2016.1168932
PMid:27045996
 
6. Hill AP, Curran T. Multidimensional perfectionism and burnout: A meta-analysis. Personality and social psychology review. 2016;20(3):269-88.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868315596286
PMid:26231736
 
7. Limburg K, Watson HJ, Hagger MS, Egan SJ. The relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology: A meta‐analysis. Journal of clinical psychology. 2017;73(10):1301-26.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22435
PMid:28026869
 
8. Stoeber J, editor. The psychology of perfectionism: Theory, research, applications. Routledge; 2017.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315536255
PMCid:PMC5763078
 
9. Smith MM, Saklofske DH, Stoeber J, Sherry SB. The big three perfectionism scale: A new measure of perfectionism. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. 2016;34(7):670-87.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282916651539
 
10. Shafran R, Egan S, Wade T. Overcoming Perfectionism 2nd Edition: A self-help guide using scientifically supported cognitive behavioural techniques. Robinson; 2018.
 
11. Madigan DJ, Stoeber J, Passfield L. Perfectionism and attitudes towards doping in junior athletes. Journal of sports sciences. 2016;34(8):700-6.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1068441
PMid:26177255
 
12. Foulkes SH, Anthony EJ. Group psychotherapy: The psychoanalytic approach. Routledge; 2018.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429475375
 
13. Cohen S, Kamarck TO, Mermelstein RO. Perceived stress scale (PSS). J Health Soc Beh. 1983;24:285.
https://doi.org/10.1037/t02889-000
 
14. Maroufizadeh S, Foroudifard F, Navid B, Ezabadi Z, Sobati B, Omani-Samani R. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) in women experiencing infertility: A reliability and validity study. Middle East Fertility Society Journal. 2018 Dec 1;23(4):456-9.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mefs.2018.02.003
 
15. Aminizadeh S, Dolatshahi B, Pourshahbaz A, Babapour B, Yousefzadeh I, Zamanshoar E, Eshaghi M. Psychometric properties of multidimensional perfectionism scale (MPS). Practice in Clinical Psychology. 2013 Oct 10;1(4):205-10.
 
16. Tayama J, Nakaya N, Hamaguchi T, Tomiie T, Shinozaki M, Saigo T, Shirabe S, Fukudo S. Effects of personality traits on the manifestations of irritable bowel syndrome. BioPsychoSocial medicine. 2012 Dec;6(1):1-8.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1751-0759-6-20
PMid:23110762 PMCid:PMC3523040
 
17. Distrutti E, Monaldi L, Ricci P, Fiorucci S. Gut microbiota role in irritable bowel syndrome: New therapeutic strategies. World journal of gastroenterology. 2016;22(7):2219.
https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v22.i7.2219
PMid:26900286 PMCid:PMC4734998
 
18. Frosh S. Psychosocial studies with psychoanalysis. Journal of Psychosocial Studies. 2019;12(1-2):101-14.
https://doi.org/10.1332/147867319X15608718110952
 
19. Holtmann GJ, Ford AC, Talley NJ. Pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome. The lancet Gastroenterology & hepatology. 2016;1(2):133-46.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-1253(16)30023-1
PMid:28404070
 
20. Tap J, Derrien M, Törnblom H, Brazeilles R, Cools-Portier S, Doré J, Störsrud S, Le Nevé B, Öhman L, Simrén M. Identification of an intestinal microbiota signature associated with severity of irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology. 2017;152(1):111-23.
https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2016.09.049
PMid:27725146
 
21. Ballou S, Keefer L. Psychological interventions for irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel diseases. Clinical and translational gastroenterology. 2017;8(1):214.
https://doi.org/10.1038/ctg.2016.69
PMid:28102860 PMCid:PMC5288603
 
22. Reinecke L, Aufenanger S, Beutel ME, Dreier M, Quiring O, Stark B, Wölfling K, Müller KW. Digital stress over the life span: The effects of communication load and internet multitasking on perceived stress and psychological health impairments in a German probability sample. Media Psychology. 2017;20(1):90-115.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2015.1121832
 
23. Saeed AA, Bahnassy AA, Al-Hamdan NA, Almudhaibery FS, Alyahya AZ. Perceived stress and associated factors among medical students. Journal of family & community medicine. 2016;23(3):166.
https://doi.org/10.4103/2230-8229.189132
PMid:27625584 PMCid:PMC5009887
 
24. Beebe B. My journey in infant research and psychoanalysis: Microanalysis, a social microscope. Psychoanalytic Psychology. 2014;31(1):4.
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035575
 
25. Choudhury TK, John KC, Garrett RK, Stagner BH. Considering Psychodynamic Therapy for Older Adults. Psychodynamic Psychiatry. 2020;48(2):152-62.
https://doi.org/10.1521/pdps.2020.48.2.152
PMid:32628580
 
26. Johansson R, Hesslow T, Ljótsson B, Jansson A, Jonsson L, Färdig S, Karlsson J, Hesser H, Frederick RJ, Lilliengren P, Carlbring P. Internet-based affect-focused psychodynamic therapy for social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial with 2-year follow-up. Psychotherapy. 2017;54(4):351.
https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000147
PMid:29251954
 
27. Mehryar M, Golafrooz S. An investigation on the effectiveness of group psychodynamic psychotherapy on the personality dimensions in divorced and non-divorce woman with low marital satisfaction. Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health. 2017;19(5):384-93