The Impact of Culture in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) for Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The treatment will consist of eight weekly sessions, each lasting one hour. The first session will focus on the rationale of cognitive behavioral therapy, i.e. the influence of (irrational or dysfunctional) cognitions and attitudes on (restrictive) feelings and behaviors. Additionally, goal setting will be initiated. Since patients may have a wide diversity of psychiatric problems (i.e. PTSD, anxiety disorders and depression), the treatment manual will encompass five optional modules for the therapist that focus on each of these disorders (i.e. exposure based for anxiety and PTSD, behavioral activation for depression). The subsequent sessions (2-6) will target teaching the patient to identify and challenge dysfunctional cognitions and attitudes related to IBD. Each session will address specific illness-related cognitions. If possible, dysfunctional cognitions and attitudes will be replaced by helpful cognitions and attitudes.

participants assigned to the waiting-list control condition will wait 3.5 months before they are treated with CBT. This period corresponds to the duration of the CBT intervention and follow-up assessment of the experimental group. After this 3.5 month waiting period the participants in the waiting-list control condition will be asked to complete a follow-up after waiting/baseline before CBT assessment before starting treatment.