Volume 26, Issue 119, January 2022

The effectiveness of the unified protocol on symptoms, quality of life, negative affect, and negative reactivity in irritable bowel syndrome patients in comorbidity with anxiety and depression

Ala Ghapanchi¹, Abbas Masjedi-Arani^2♦, Amir Sadeghi³, Maryam Asle Zaker Lighvan⁴, Mohsen Saberi Isfeedvajani⁵, Shaghayegh Eslamipour⁶

¹PhD Student of Clinical Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
²Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
³Associate Professor, Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
⁴Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
⁵Associate Professor, Medicine, Quran and Hadith Research Center & Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
⁶PhD Student of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran

^♦Corresponding author
Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS ( is a prevalent gastrointestinal dysfunction characterised by chronic abdominal pain and changes in bowel movement. Unified protocol is based on emotion regulations skills and can be used for a wide range of emotional disorders. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of unified protocol on Symptoms, Quality of Life, Negative Affect and Negative Reactivity in IBS patient’s in comorbidity with anxiety and depression. Method: This study was a quasi-experimental study with a control group (n = 13) and an intervention group (n = 12) with random assignment and pre-test post-test with a three-month follow-up after treatment. In this study, the population included all of the patients with irritable bowel syndrome and the sample included the patients referring to Taleghani Hospital in 2020. Data were analyzed through repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The results of repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, negative affect, and fear of emotions, anxiety sensitivity, repetitive negative thinking, and the quality of life in the intervention group reduced over time compared to the control group and the difference between the means of two groups was statistically significant. Discussion and conclusion: In general, the results of this study showed that the unified protocol is effective on gastrointestinal symptoms and accompanying anxiety, depression symptoms and it can reduce both the symptoms of negative affect and the negative reactivity to emotions and also improve the quality of life of patients.

Keywords: Unified Protocol, IBS, anxiety and depression, quality of life, negative affect, negative reactivity

Medical Science, 2022, 26, ms34e1964

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v26i119/ms34e1964

Published: 18 January 2022