Irritable bowel syndrome subtypes: Clinical and psychological features, body mass index and comorbidities

• Cristiane Kibune-Nagasako ^[1] ; Ciro Garcia-Montes ^[1] ; Sônia Letícia Silva-Lorena ^[1] ; Maria Aparecida-Mesquita ^[1]
  1. [1] Faculty of Medical Sciences. State University of Campinas-Unicamp. Campinas, São Paulo. Brazil
• Localización: Revista Española de Enfermedades Digestivas, ISSN-e 2340-4167, ISSN 1130-0108, Vol. 108, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 59-64
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is classified into subtypes according to bowel habit.

    Objective: To investigate whether there are differences in clinical features, comorbidities, anxiety, depression and body mass index (BMI) among IBS subtypes.

    Methods: The study group included 113 consecutive patients (mean age: 48 ± 11 years; females: 94) with the diagnosis of IBS.

    All of them answered a structured questionnaire for demographic and clinical data and underwent upper endoscopy. Anxiety and depression were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD).

    Results: The distribution of subtypes was: IBS-diarrhea (IBS-D), 46%; IBS-constipation (IBS-C), 32%, and mixed IBS (IBS-M), 22%.

    IBS overlap with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), functional dyspepsia, chronic headache and fibromyalgia occurred in 65.5%, 48.7%, 40.7% and 22.1% of patients, respectively. Anxiety and/or depression were found in 81.5%. Comparisons among subgroups showed that bloating was significantly associated with IBS-M compared to IBS-D (odds ratio-OR-5.6). Straining was more likely to be reported by IBS-M (OR 15.3) and IBS-C (OR 12.0) compared to IBS-D patients, while urgency was associated with both IBS-M (OR 19.7) and IBS-D (OR 14.2) compared to IBS-C. In addition, IBS-M patients were more likely to present GERD than IBS-D (OR 6.7) and higher scores for anxiety than IBS-C patients (OR 1.2).

    BMI values did not differ between IBS-D and IBS-C.

    Conclusion: IBS-M is characterized by symptoms frequently reported by both IBS-C (straining) and IBS-D (urgency), higher levels of anxiety, and high prevalence of comorbidities. These features should be considered in the clinical management of this subgroup