The Effective of Behavioral Cognitive Intervention based uncertainty Intolerance and acceptance and commitment Intervention on Anxiety, Severity of Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Cortisol Level of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder; follow up for three months

Irritable bowel syndrome is one of the most common causes of chronic abdominal pain, therefore the aim was the effectiveness of behavioral cognitive intervention based uncertainty intolerance and acceptance and commitment intervention on anxiety, severity of gastrointestinal symptoms and cortisol level in patients with irritable bowel syndrome with generalized anxiety disorder.

This study was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest and posttest design with a control group and follow up for three months. The statistical population included patients with irritable bowel syndrome and generalized anxiety disorder who referred to Parsian Hospital between late winter 1398 to mid-summer 1399 and internal medicine in Tehran. 60 patients were selected through targeted sampling and randomly assigned in Behavioral Cognitive Intervention based Intolerance of uncertainty, acceptance and commitment Intervention and control (n= 20 each). Data were collected analyzed using the Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Severity of Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Anxiety and blood cortisol level test and by SPSS-25 and using analysis of variance were performed by repeated measures.

Both interventions had a significant effect on reducing the severity of irritable bowel syndrome and gastrointestinal symptoms and blood cortisol levels (P <0.01, this effect was stable during follow-up period (P <0.01). Regarding anxiety, only cognitive-behavioral intervention had a significant effect (P <0.01)

Behavioral cognitive and acceptance and commitment interventions as an effective intervention can be used in medical centers to reduce severity of gastrointestinal symptoms and blood cortisol levels of patients with irritable bowel syndrome and generalized anxiety disorder.