The Effects of Stress Management Training on Symptoms of Medical Treatment-Resistant Functional Dyspepsia

Abstract

Background: Non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) is one of the common gastrointestinal disorders considered as a psychosomatic disorder. The effectiveness of psychological intervention in improving symptoms of this disease remains unclear. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of add-on stress management training on symptoms of NUD.

Materials andMethods: In a randomized clinical trial, 28 consecutive patients with treatment-resistant NUD were selected from referrals to Noor Hospital, Isfahan and they were randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group received a usual care plus a 7-session stress management training while the control group received a usual care plus psychological placebo. All patients were assessed by the Global Overall Symptoms (GOS) scale, Cooper Stress Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory and Cattell Anxiety Inventory at pretreatment and three weeks after treatment.Analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data.

Results: The results of covariance showed significant differences between the two groups in the Global Overall Symptoms (GOS) scale (F=8.39, p‹0.0007), Cooper Stress Inventory (F=10.8, p‹0.003), Beck Depression Inventory (F=12.87, p‹0.001) and Cattell Anxiety Inventory (F=11.031, p‹0.003).

Conclusion: Globally, the findings proved that combination of psychological intervention-based stress reduction plus routine medical care would be the successful approach in treating symptoms of NUD.