Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD) refers to one or more symptoms that cause distress or a significant disruption in one's daily life and is correlated with poor Quality of Life and psychological distress, as well as an increased burden on health services. Therefore, its identification and treatment are of great importance because of the high prevalence and cost of this syndrome. The present study aimed to evaluate the factor structure, as well as the validity and reliability of the 8-Item Somatic Symptom Scale (SSS-8) in a non-clinical sample of Iranian society. Methods: The study participants included 281 individuals, who referred to Taleghani Hospital as the patients' companions. After obtaining their informed consent, the participants answered Beck anxiety inventory, general health, SSS-8, and somatic symptoms 12 questionnaires. After completing the questionnaires, the collected data were analyzed by SPSS v. 24 and LISREL software. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that gastrointestinal problems, pain, fatigue, and cardiopulmonary complaints were the general factor loadings of somatic symptoms. Besides, the 8-item Somatic Symptom Scale had good internal consistency. Regarding validity, the 8-question scale showed a positive correlation with the Beck anxiety inventory (r=0.70), general health questionnaire (r=0.70) and, somatic symptoms 12 (r=0.52). Conclusion: The findings provided preliminary support for the validity and reliability of the scores derived from the 8-item Somatic Symptom Scale. This scale can be used to evaluate the severity of somatic symptoms of patients referring to health clinics. Additionally, it is beneficial for interested researchers to investigate this disorder and its complications.

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS ( is a prevalent gastrointestinal dysfunction characterised by chronic abdominal pain and changes in bowel movement. Unified protocol is based on emotion regulations skills and can be used for a wide range of emotional disorders. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of unified protocol on Symptoms, Quality of Life, Negative Affect and Negative Reactivity in IBS patient's in comorbidity with anxiety and depression. Method: This study was a quasi-experimental study with a control group (n = 13) and an intervention group (n = 12) with random assignment and pre-test post-test with a three-month follow-up after treatment. In this study, the population included all of the patients with irritable bowel syndrome and the sample included the patients referring to Taleghani Hospital in 2020. Data were analyzed through repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The results of repeated measures ANOVA indicated that the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, negative affect, and fear of emotions, anxiety sensitivity, repetitive negative thinking, and the quality of life in the intervention group reduced over time compared to the control group and the difference between the means of two groups was statistically significant. Discussion and conclusion: In general, the results of this study showed that the unified protocol is effective on gastrointestinal symptoms and accompanying anxiety, depression symptoms and it can reduce both the symptoms of negative affect and the negative reactivity to emotions and also improve the quality of life of patients.

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