Predictors of the efficacy of methods for psychocorrection in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and constipation

Prognostic factors that predict the efficiency of autogenous training and psychopharmacotherapy were detected in 90 women with irritable bowel syndrome and constipation. A multifactor personality questionnaire, Spielberg's state-trait anxiety test, Beck's depression inventory scale, and visual analog scale were used for the purpose of psychodiagnosis. The efficiency of autogenous training was found to be higher in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and mildly or moderately compromised psychological adaptation associated with a moderately elevated level of anxiety. Psychopharmacotherapy proved to be especially efficacious in patients with hypochondriac, depressive, and manifest anxiety disorders. It was found that the pronouncedness of rigidity, tension, fixation-proneness, and the degree of depression could be used as predictors of positive effects of psychopharmacotherapy on stool patterns while hypochondriac trends served as predictors of the alleviation of pain syndrome in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and constipation.