Selective recall of gastrointestinal-sensation words: Evidence for a cognitive-behavioral contribution to irritable bowel syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Selective attention to GI sensations has been suggested as an im portant mechanism that affects symptom perception in patients with irritabl e bowel syndrome (IBS), but this hypothesis has not yet been tested empiric ally. Differential recall of words describing negative affect has been used to demonstrate that depressed patients selectively attend to negative affe ct words. This technique may be useful for examining selective attention to somatic sensations. The aim of this study was to determine whether patient s with IBS demonstrate selective recall of GI sensations compared with neut ral words and words describing respiratory sensations. METHODS: A total of 16 IBS patients, nine asthmatic patients (medical contr ols), and eight healthy controls were shown 10 GI sensation words or phrase s, 10 respiratory sensation words or phrases, and 10 neutral words in rando m order for 3 s each. After a distraction task, subjects wrote down all of the words or phrases they could remember. RESULTS: As predicted, IBS patients were more likely to recall GI words tha n other categories. Asthmatic patients were more likely to recall respirato ry words in comparison with healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: IBS patients selectively recall words describing GI sensations ; this suggests that they may selectively attend to GI sensations, thus sup porting the cognitive-behavioral theory of IBS. (Am J Gastroenterol 2001,96 : 1133-1138. (C) 2001 by Am. Coll. of Gastroenterology).