Is there a connection between IBS and mood disorders?
There is a connection with mood disorders and irritable bowel syndrome. There had been two studies that have been conducted. If you survey a community population of the individuals who have IBS symptoms and look at their psychological profiles, it‘s pretty normal compared to the general population. If you survey IBS patients who seek healthcare so they're IBS patients and not non-patients, they actually have more abnormal psychological profiles. That tells you that having an abnormal psychological profile or psychological disorder is not a primary cause of IBS. There are a lot of individuals with those symptoms who don't have psychological disorders. If you look at the healthcare seeking population, particularly tertiary care referral patients, they'll have a higher prevalence of depression anxiety. It's been estimated that depression is seen in about 20% of IBS patients and anxiety in 20-40% of IBS patients. What's interesting about the association of anxiety and IBS is that some individuals actually don't have general anxiety disorder, meaning that they don't necessarily develop anxiety symptoms due to different stimuli or causes. There's a term that we have raised as 'visceral anxiety', 'visceral' meaning your organ systems. We developed a questionnaire for patients with IBS that determines if they have anxiety specifically related to what's going on in their gut. They may be sensitive or very attentive to sensations in their abdomen or their gut, but it doesn't mean they have general anxiety. You have to think that that's a protective mechanism for IBS patients if they're having pain or symptoms. They're going to be vigilant or attentive to anything going on in the gut. It's just a protective mechanism and is something that we all have.
