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

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.