In IBS, GI Sensitivity Is Tied to Symptom Severity

Visceral hypersensitivity is associated with gastrointestinal (GI) symptom generation and severity in patients with functional GI disorders (FGID), a recent study showed.

For their study, the researchers evaluated 1144 patients with FGIDs (irritable bowel syndrome [IBS] or functional dyspepsia) in 5 cohorts. Each patient had undergone visceral sensitivity testing using balloon distensions.
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Patients were administered questionnaires to determine GI symptom severity, non-GI somatic symptoms, anxiety, and depression. Patients were categorized into sensitivity tertiles in accordance with pain and discomfort thresholds, and GI symptom severity was compared between tertiles.

Findings showed that GI symptom severity had increased gradually with increasing visceral sensitivity in all 5 cohorts. The researchers observed significant differences in GI symptom severity between the sensitivity tertiles, with small to medium effect sizes. These differences remained statistically significant in all cohorts following adjustment for various factors.

“A gradual increase in GI symptom severity with increasing GI sensitivity was demonstrated in IBS and functional dyspepsia, which was consistent across several large patient groups from different countries, different methods to assess sensitivity and assessments in different parts of the GI tract,” the researchers wrote.

“This association was independent of tendency to report symptoms or anxiety/depression comorbidity. These findings confirm that visceral hypersensitivity is a contributor to GI symptom generation in FGIDs,” they concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Simrén M, Törnblom H, Palsson OS, et al. Visceral hypersensitivity is associated with GI symptom severity in functional GI disorders: consistent findings from five different patient cohorts [Published online January 8, 2018]. Gut. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2016-312361.