PSYCHOSOCIAL BACKGROUND IN IRRITABLE-BOWEL-SYNDROME

Objectives: To determine the psychological characteristics of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and the associated stressful life events. Methods: This preliminary study was conducted on 247 consecut ive patients with IBS, who were seen in a Gastroenterology Clinic in S ana'a over a three year period. Their ages ranged from 18 to 62 years in men and from 18 to 61 years in women. Patients were diagnosed as ha ving IBS if they had abdominal pain at any site accompanied by abdomin al distension and altered bowel habit for which no pathological explan ation could be found. Neurotic disorders and stressful life events wer e diagnosed according to standardized questionnaires. Data was collect ed on specially designed records for computer analysis. Results: Const ipation-predominant IBS was observed to be more frequent among women c ompared with men (p < 0.001): whereas diarrhea-predominant form was no ticed to be more frequent among men than in women (p = 0.02). Neurotic or minor affective disorders were found in 93.1% of all IBS patients with no significant sex difference. The existence of one or more stres sful life events was noticed among 84.6% of all IBS patients. Mean ran k sum For stress index scores was found to be significantly higher in women compared with men (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: It can he concluded from this study that stressful life events were associated with IBS i n most patients. especially women, and that minor affective disorders have characterized the majority of IBS patients regardless of gender.