Efficacy of training in stress and contingency management in cases of irritable bowel syndrome

Abstract

AbstractForty patients with irritable bowel syndrome were assigned at random to four treatment conditions (two experimental groups: training in stress management and training in contingency management; and two control groups: medical treatment and placebo). In each of the groups (N = 10), care was taken to ensure that half the cases were suitable for training in stress management due to the respondent nature of the illness in these cases and the other half suitable for training in contingency management due to the operant nature of their problem. The patients underwent six individual sessions of specific treatment according to the condition. All of the subjects completed symptom‐monitoring diaries. In the post‐treatment, a MANOVA of mixed factorial design was carried out to analyse the interaction between the suitability of the patient and the type of treatment for the global value of the symptomatology and for each symptom. The results showed that statistically significant changes occurred depending on the interaction between suitability‐treatment p < 0.1) and on the type of treatment (p < 0.05). The clinical changes recorded by the gastroenterologist were maintained after a year. An analysis is made of the behavioural predictors of the resolution of the patients according to suitability and the type of treatment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.