Effect of MBSR on Quality of Life of Patients with IBS

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal disorder, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), often goes misdiagnosed, leading to multiple consultations and medications. Various pharmacological and surgical treatments attempts to provide the desired relief; however, no fruitful results have been obtained so far. This often leads to poor quality of life among patients. Keeping in view, the present study explores the effect of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on IBS patients. AIM: To assess and compare the effect of MBSR on quality of life in patients of IBS. To see the effect of MBSR on level of mindfulness in patients of IBS. METHODS: Total 38 patients of IBS between 18-59 years of age, both genders, literate and illiterate belonging from rural and urban population were included for the study. Those fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken for the study. They were explained the purpose of the study, consent was attained and assessment was done using different psychological tools. Using random sampling, patients were divided into experimental (19) and control (19) groups. Intervention of MBSR was given for 2 months; weekly sessions. Follow-up was done after 3 months of completion of therapy. The pre-post research design was used. RESULTS: The obtained results show that with intervention of MBSR, after every session, QoL of IBS patients also improved, accompanied by improvement in mindfulness level. CONCLUSION: The present study concludes that MBSR is an effective intervention strategy for improving QoL of IBS patients.