Efficacy of emotion regulation training on pain intensity and life quality in patients with peptic ulcer disease (PUD).

Aim: Because gastric ulcer is a psychosomatic disease involving many psychological factors like assertiveness and cognitive beliefs, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotion regulation training on pain intensity and quality of life in patients with peptic ulcer disease.

Background: Gastric ulcer, a recurrent and common disease worldwide, is associated with gastrointestinal symptoms and lower health-related quality of life. Psychological factors and stress have been recognized as important contributors to the onset and duration of gastric ulcer, highlighting the need for effective psychological interventions to improve pain intensity and quality of life in patients.

Methods: The research method was semi-experimental and based on the pretest-posttest control group design, with follow-up after three months. The sample included 46 participants selected by a Purposive Sampling method and placed randomly in the experimental and control groups. At first, simultaneously, and under the same conditions, all the participants responded to the Chronic Pain Grade Questionnaire (CPG) and Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF-12). The emotion regulation training was performed on the experimental group. In the end, both groups were evaluated by posttests, and then they were tracked after three months. To analyze data, the ANCOVA test was applied through SPSS 22.

Results: Findings showed that emotion regulation training was meaningfully effective in decreasing pain intensity and increasing life quality (p<0.01), but after three months interval, no significant changes were found in the results.

Conclusion: Due to the results about emotion regulation training protocol that has successfully reduced pain intensity symptoms in PUD patients and increased life quality, it is suggested that this protocol can be added to other treatments for PUD patients.