Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Therapy and Interoceptive Exposure on Symptom Severity of Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a debilitating chronic disease due to major changes in the health status and lifestyle of people in recent years; it has been one of the common and significant problems in the field of healthcare and medical professionals, which requires psychological interventions besides the biological treatments due to the accompanying psychological complications. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy and interoceptive exposure on symptom severity of patients with IBS.

This was a clinical trial study and statistical population consisted of all patients with IBS referred to specialized centers in Isfahan, Iran. The research sample consisted of 45 patients who were selected by availability sampling method and randomly assigned to three experimental and control groups. The experimental groups were subjected to cognitive-behavioral interventions based on mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral interventions based on interoceptive exposure, respectively. The research data were collected with the help of the IBS Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) and were analyzed using the statistical method of repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Mindfulness therapy and interoceptive exposure therapy were effective on the severity of symptoms in the experimental groups compared to the control group (P < 0.01). In addition, a significant difference was found between the two educational strategies in the post-test and follow-up stages (P < 0.01). Mindfulness therapy was more effective on the severity of the symptoms of the patients and a greater reduction was obtained in the averages of the two stages.

Mindfulness therapy and interoceptive exposure therapy led to improvement of severity of patients' symptoms and physicians can use these psychological methods as a complement to biological therapies.