Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy in Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Physical Symptoms in Patients With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common disorder of the digestive system. Despite the long period of study on the treatment of IBS, only a small number of treatments have proven effective.

The current study aimed to determine the efficacy of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) in depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms in patients with IBS.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest, posttest, follow-up, and control group. The present study was carried out on a total of 30 patients with IBS (diagnosed by a gastroenterologist applying the Rome III criteria) selected and divided into CFT (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The experimental group received eight sessions of CFT. All groups responded to the Severity of Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-42 was administered as pre-post and follow-up tests.

The results showed significantly lower mean scores in depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms in the experimental group in the posttest. The follow-up test given 8 weeks after the posttest did not show any change in the results.

The obtained findings support the efficacy of CFT in depression, anxiety, stress, and physical symptoms in patients with IBS.