RESUMEN
Background and aim: Positive psychology includes the study of positive subjective experiences, such as: well being and happiness, positive individual traits, such as hope and forgiveness and interpersonal strengths, such as altruism and sense of accepting the community. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of hope enhancing training on level of behavioral strengths in dysthymic patients
Methods: In an experimental study 40 patients with dysthymic disorder were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental and control groups. At first, the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths [VIA- IS] test was performed on them as the pre- test. Then the experimental group received 6 sessions of hope enhancing training. The control group did not receive any training. At the end of the training, the [VIA- IS] was again performed on all subjects as the post- test
Results: The results of analysis of data showed that after hope enhancing training, the means of the characters strengths of the training group were significantly higher than control group [P<0.001]
Conclusion: Hope enhancing training is an effective intervention to improve strengths of Forgiveness, Self regulation, Modesty and Humility and prudence
RESUMEN
Irritable bowel syndrome is the most prevalent functional bowel disorder which is characterized by chronic abdominal pain and altered bowel habit in the absence of organic disease. Psychological factors are of the major factors involved in this disease. The aim of this study was comparison of the effect of relaxation with and without drug therapy on the psychological symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome-diarrhea predominant [IBS-D]. This clinical- trial study was performed on 32 IBS-diarrhea dominant patients. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. One group was treated by using relaxation technique without drug therapy and another group was treated by using relaxation technique combined with drug therapy. Diagnostic characters of Rome-II and III were used for diagnosing the IBS-D patients and SCL-90 test was used for evaluating the psychological symptoms. The study was performed in three steps, pretest, post test and 4 months after last intervention [follow up group]. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance [ANCOVA] method. The average age of the patients in this study was 37 +/- 15.43 years. Our study demonstrated that there was a significant reduction in psychological symptoms scores in post test and follow up groups compared to the pre test group. This reduction was higher in patients receiving relaxation combined to drug therapy compared to the drug therapy group [P<0.05]. Based on the results of this study, Combination of relaxation and drug therapy is effective for reducing the psychological symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome patients