The relationship between daily stress and symptoms of irritable bowel: a time-series approach

The relationship between daily stress and symptoms of irritable bowel: a time-series approach

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic disorder that includes symptoms such as abdominal pain and altered bowel habits, affects up to 22% of people in Western populations. The causes of IBS are not well understood, but are believed to be multifactorial. Although stress is widely believed to be im...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychosomatic research Vol. 44; no. 5; pp. 537 - 545
Main Authors: Dancey, Christine P., Taghavi, Mahdad, Fox, Rachel J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01-05-1998
New York, NY Elsevier
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Colonic Diseases, Functional - complications
Daily stress
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gastroenterology. Liver. Pancreas. Abdomen
Humans
Illness and personality
Illness, stress and coping
Irritable bowel syndrome
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Models, Psychological
Other diseases. Semiology
Psychology and medicine
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Regression Analysis
Relationship
Stomach. Duodenum. Small intestine. Colon. Rectum. Anus
Stress
Stress, Psychological - complications
Time Factors
Time-series
Time-series
Stress
Irritable bowel syndrome
Human
Pathogenesis
Daily living
Digestive diseases
Intestinal disease
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Summary:Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic disorder that includes symptoms such as abdominal pain and altered bowel habits, affects up to 22% of people in Western populations. The causes of IBS are not well understood, but are believed to be multifactorial. Although stress is widely believed to be implicated, empirical evidence in support of this is lacking, perhaps because a typical between-participants analysis ignores individual differences and therefore may obscure any link. The present study used a within-person, lagged time-series approach to investigate the links between everyday stress and symptomatology in 31 IBS sufferers. Both everyday stress and symptomatology exhibited serial dependence for a statistically significant proportion of sufferers. Multiple regression analysis carried out on same-day and lagged relationships up to and including 4 days found that, for over half the participants, everyday stress and symptoms were related. The best regression model was one in which symptoms were a function of hassles and symptoms on the previous 2 days, and hassles on the same day, fitting the data for 67% of participants. This prospective study confirms other studies that have suggested stress is a significant factor in IBS, and concludes that stress management programs may be both useful and cost-effective in the treatment of IBS.
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ISSN:0022-3999
1879-1360
DOI:10.1016/S0022-3999(97)00255-9