Sleep disturbances in clinic patients with functional bowel disorders

OBJECTIVE: Sleep deprivation can lower visceral perception thresholds and n onregenerative sleep has been implicated as an etiological factor in chroni c hyperalgesia syndromes. The aims of our study were to quantify the self-r eported prevalence and type of sleep disturbances in patients with differen t functional bowel disorders (FBD) and to determine if this prevalence is r elated to involvement of the upper or lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract, pe rceived disease severity, or psychological comorbidity. METHODS:We enrolled 505 new FED patients from an academic referral center s pecializing in functional GI disorders and 247 community based healthy cont rols. All patients and controls were prospectively evaluated by validated b owel symptom and sleep questionnaires. A psychological profile was obtained by SCL-90R. RESULTS: We found that 68% of functional dyspepsia (FD), 71.2% of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)+FD, 50.2% of IBS, and 55.1% of the normal subjects re ported having sleep disturbances. Waking up repeatedly during the night and waking up in the morning feeling tired or not rested were the most commonl y reported sleep patterns; 57.2% of the patients reported that their abdomi nal ache awakened them from sleep during the night. Self-reported sleep dis turbance was directly related to the perceived intensity of GI symptoms. Se lf-reported sleep disturbances were equally common in both male (57%) and f emale (58.4%) FED patients. There was no significant difference between the mean anxiety and depression scores between patients with and without sleep dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: FD patients, but not IBS patients, reported sleep disturbances more frequently than healthy control subjects. Abdominal pain or discomfor t that awaken FED patients from sleep during the night were common, and thu s a poor discriminating factor between organic and functional disorders. (C ) 2000 by Am. Cell. of Gastroenterology.