The Relationship between Stressful Life Events, Type D Personality, Catastrophizing and Psychological Distress on Severity of Symptom in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between stressful life events-type personality, catastrophizing and psychological distress with symptoms severity in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Methods: This research was a correlational study and the population were consisted of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Isfahan who were diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome based on the Rome III scale. This study utilized a convenience sample of 150 patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome referring to Isfahan clinics in autumn 2017. Patients responded to gastrointestinal symptoms severity scale, important life events questionnaire, D-type personality scale, catastrophizing scale, and psychological distress inventory. The collected data was analyzed by Amos software using the covariance based structural equation modeling. Results: The effect of stressful life events, catastrophizing and psychological distress on the severity of symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome were significant but personality type D did not show significant effect on the severity of symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Conclusions: According to the results of this study, the teaching of coping with stressful events catastrophizing and psychological distress can reduce the severity of symptoms in patients with IBS.