[Differences in the stress symptoms rating scale in Spanish between patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and healthy controls].

UNLABELLED: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be explained by the interrelation of cognitive components such as illness behavior, emotional such as depression and anxiety, behavioral such as environmental stressors, and physiologic such as pain modulation alterations. The stress symptom rating (SSR) scale is being used in physiologic studies in IBS, but differences between IBS patients and healthy controls in the basal condition is unknown.

AIMS: To determine the basal differences in the SSR-Spanish between IBS patients and controls, and between IBS patients according to bowel-habit predominance.

METHODS

Forty consecutive IBS-Roma 1 patients [M: 28 (78%), F:8(22.2%), 42.6 +/- 2.7 years] and 36 healthy volunteers paired by gender and age [M: 28 (78%), F:8 (22.2%); 36.7 +/- 2.1 years] were included. IBS were classified as constipation, diarrhea, or alternating. All completed the SSR prior to the medical visit. Mean group values of the different SSR parameters were compared by ANOVA. A p < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

Compared with controls, IBS patients reported higher anxiety (p = 0.005), attention (p = 0.04) fatigue (p = 0.04), and lower arousal (p = 0.003). There were no differences in stress and anger either in IBS patients according to bowel-habit predominance.

CONCLUSIONS

Under basal conditions, there are differences in anxiety, weakness, attention, and arousal between IBS patients and controls that correspond to intrinsic characteristics of IBS independent of bowel-habit predominance. Higher anxiety is in agreement with psychological comorbidity, higher attention with hypervigilance, and fatigue and lower arousal with sleep disturbances known to be present in IBS. Absence of differences in stress and anger under basal conditions suggests that SSR-Spanish is a good instrument to evaluate response to stress during physiologic paradigms.