Effectiveness of cognitive- behavioral Therapy on Pain Intensity and Stress Coping Styles in Patients with Gastric Wound

Patients with symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders and ulcers constitute a large number of patients referred to general and internal clinics and preliminary studies of gastric ulcer have shown the role of psychological factors in the production of susceptible gastric ulcer. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on pain intensity and stress coping styles in patients with gastric ulcer.

The present study was an intervention with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population was all patients with gastric ulcer referred to public health centers in Tehran in the winter of 2018. Among the volunteers participating in the study, 30 patients with gastric ulcer were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group (15 people in each group). Measurement tools included McGill (2000) Pain Intensity Questionnaire and Andler & Parker (1990) coping styles. Subjects in the first experimental group participated in 8 sessions of 90-minute cognitive-behavioral therapy. The subjects in the control group did not receive psychological treatment during this period. For data analysis, mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures and post hoc tests were used.

Ethical considerations:

This study with the ID IR.IAU.K.REC.1397.85 has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch.

The results showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy led to an increase in problem-oriented coping style (P<0.01) and a decrease in emotion-focused coping styles (P<0.01) and avoidance (P<0.01). Also, the mean scores of pain intensity decreased compared to the control group (P<0.01).

It can be concluded that cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective on pain intensity and stress coping styles in patients with gastric ulcer.