Abstract
The aim of this study was to ascertain the effects of a holistic short-term group intervention in the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (/BS) with comorbid depression and anxiety. The sample consisted of 24 South African women who had been diagnosed with severe IBS. Furthermore, each participant had to have associated moderate to severe depression and anxiety. The group design was a pre-test, post-test control group design where the experimental group (n = 12) received group intervention and the members of the control group (n = 12) received no intervention until after completion of the research. All the participants completed the Functional Bowel Disorder Severity Index and the Depression and Anxiety subscales of the Personality Assessment Inventory before commencement of group therapy for Group 1 and one month after completion of this intervention. The effect of the intervention was determined by utilising comparative statistics. The findings indicate that holistic short-term group therapy results in significant improvement in terms of depreSSion and anxiety scores, but that IBS symptom severity remains unchanged. It is recommended that further research be conducted to ascertain whether holistic group therapy of a longer duration has a greater impact on the IBS symptom severity.
Highlights
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder, which is centuries old, and yet little light has been shed on the successful treatment of this symptom complex
In Group 1, statistically significant differences between the pre- and post-intervention scores were reported in terms of anxiety (p = 0.014; significant at 5% level; 0 = 69.9091 versus 0 = 57.0909) and depression (p = 0.002; significant at the 1% level; 0 = 69.6667 versus 0 = 55.9167)
The holistic short-term group psychotherapy for participants with severe IBS and moderate to severe depression and anxiety was effective in reducing anxiety statistically significantly
Summary
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a disorder, which is centuries old, and yet little light has been shed on the successful treatment of this symptom complex. IBS symptoms are expressed in various forms More common are those located in the mid to lower abdominal tract which include chronic or severe abdominal pain, abdominal distention, altered bowel habit (diarrhoea, constipation or a mixed stool pattern) and a passage of mucus (Drossman, 1994:11). Less common are symptoms within the upper gastrointestinal tract, which could include epigastric pain, dyspepsia, nausea and heartburn. Unrelated symptoms such as backache, dyspareunia or bladder irritability have been positively correlated with IBS. Psychosocial factors such as depression and anxiety have been strongly associated with IBS and this together with the absence of a pathological indication further fuels the diagnostic dilemma. The incidence of psychiatric illness found in IBS health care seekers ranges between 70% to 90%, with depression and anxiety predominating (Lydiard, Laraia, Howell & Ballenger, 1986:470)
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