Comparison of Psychological Factors in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are two common diseases of lower gastrointestinal symptoms and discomfort. Although research has demonstrated the influence of psychological processes on gastrointestinal functions, few studies compared the role of psychological factors in IBS and IBD disease. The present study aimed to assess the psychological factors in patients suffering from IBS and IBD.
Methodology: This current cross-sectional study was done on 90 subjects with diagnosed IBD (15 women, 15 men), IBS (15 women, 15 men), and 30 non-IBS/non-IBD in the Gastroenterology Department of Babol University of Medical Sciences. All subjects filled out three questionnaires; Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II), Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).
Results: The IBS and IBD patients had higher scores in unconstructive management conflict (dominating and avoiding) ways than the controls, but did not differ from each other. Although both the IBS and IBD patients had higher alexithymia scores than control subjects, IBS patients were more alexithymic than IBD patients. Significantly, higher scores were found in patients with IBS compared to IBD for some psychiatric symptoms (depression 17.2±11.3 vs 10.7±6.8, anxiety 12.7±8.2 vs 7.5±4.5, and the total score of psychiatric symptoms 115.4±62.6 vs 83.3±44.8).
Conclusion: Although both the IBS and IBD patients experienced more psychiatric symptoms, unconstructive conflict management styles, and alexithymia than controls, IBS patients had worse psychiatric and alexithymic symptoms than IBD.