Quality of life in different gastrointestinal conditions

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in how gastrointestinal symptoms relate to and impact on patients' health-related quality of life. This is particularly the case for functional gastrointestinal disorders th at are characterized by a lack of biological markers for disease activity. Then is only a slight variation in the type of gastrointestinal symptoms re ported with different gastrointestinal disorders, and patients with dyspeps ia or irritable bowel syndrome, for example, often describe a variety of ga strointestinal symptoms with considerable overlap between them. The same pa ttern has been observed in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease, e ven though heartburn and acid regurgitation are easier to distinguish from other gastrointestinal symptoms, particularly in patients in whom objective reflux is verified. Most aspects of health-related quality of life in pati ents with gastrointestinal disorders an compromised, irrespective of diagno sis. Patients with functional disorders seem, if anything, to display more emotional distress than those with organic disorders. Given the considerabl e overlap between different gastrointestinal symptom clusters, it is not su rprising that these conditions have a similar impact in terms of perceived health status and quality of life. The key factors associated with the degr ee of perceived distress and dysfunction relate to disease severity and the presence of abdominal pain symptoms.