Effects of psycho-education on quality of life in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

ABSTRACT

Presentations of Irritable Bowel Syndrome [IBS] is influenced by numerous cultural, racial and social factors. Some evidences indicate that psycho-education can potentially improve the Quality Of Life [QOL] in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of psycho-education on the QOL in a sample of Iranian patients with IBS. This clinical trial was conducted on 44 patients who were randomly assigned to an experiment group and a control one. The two groups were matched for age, sex, level of education, job status and level of stress. The control group received only drug therapy while the case group participated in a three-session educational program as well. The content of educations included information about anatomy of the intestines, pathopysiology of IBS and potential causes of symptom aggravation, as well as stress manage-ment and problem solving skills training. The QOL Short Form scale for IBS patients [IBS QOL-SF36] were administerd to both groups before the first and one month after the last session of psycho-education. Data were analysed using T-student and Chi-square tests running SPSS-10 software. The mean age of the control and the case group was 33.5 +/- 8 and 37.5 +/- 10 years respectively. Most of the patients in both groups were female, married and urban resident, with no significant differences in this regards. There was also no significant difference between the two groups regarding the mean scores of IBS-QOL-SF36. In the short term follow up psycho-education was not effective in improving the QOL in patients with IBS. A long-term evaluation as well as a large sample size is needed for more reliable conclusions: