Patients With Gut-Brain Disorders Required More Health Care During Pandemic

Research revealed that patients with functional gastrointestinal and motility disorders (FGIMD)  experienced increased gastrointestinal symptoms over the course of COVID-19 pandemic, requiring increased health care utilization and medication use.

“We performed a retrospective study of patients with three common FGIMD—irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastroparesis, and functional dyspepsia (FD)—and tested for SARS-CoV-2 to describe alterations in gastrointestinal symptoms, medication use, and healthcare utilization during and before the pandemic and factors associated with COVID-19,” the authors reported.

Among patients with FGIMD studied at the authors’ institution, COVID-19 prevalence was at 3.2% between March and September 2020. Among patients with IBS, prevalence was at 3.62%; 3.07% in gastroparesis; and 2.44% in FD.

“Patients with FGIMD had increased abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and weight loss along with increased proton pump inhibitor, H2 blocker, and opioid use. Both inpatient hospitalizations and outpatient visits and number of diagnostic tests, including cross-sectional imaging, and upper and lower endoscopies were significantly higher during the pandemic as compared to 6 months prior. Diarrhea-predominant IBS was positively associated with COVID-19, whereas functional dyspepsia was negatively associated,” the authors concluded.

—Angelique Platas

Reference

Gubatan J, Zikos T, Spear Bishop E, et al. Gastrointestinal symptoms and healthcare utilization have increased among patients with functional gastrointestinal and motility disorders during the Covid-19 pandemic. Neurogastroenterol Motil. Published online August 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nmo.14243