Source: DGNews  |  Posted 8 years ago

By Charlene Laino

BALTIMORE, MD -- October 17, 2003 -- Dual gastric disorders may be more common than previously believed, according to researchers who found that nearly three-fourths of people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) also have functional dyspepsia.

Ashok K. Tuteja, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States, presented these findings here on October 13th at the 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.

About 1 in 10 Americans have chronic IBS, said Dr. Tuteja.

It has been suggested that dyspepsia and IBS represent the same disease entity -- the so-called irritable gut. Dr. Tuteja and colleagues undertook a study to determine how common each syndrome is and to what extent they overlap.

The researchers followed 723 people who filled out questionnaires asking about their upper and lower gastrointestinal symptoms. Their ages ranged from 24 to 77 years, with a median of 47 years.

For the study, IBS was defined as having continuous or recurrent symptoms for 3 months or more in the previous 12 months. Symptoms included abdominal pain or discomfort that is relieved with defecation or associated with changes in stool, hard or loose stool, straining or urgency and bloating. Functional dyspepsia was defined as having upper abdominal pain or discomfort for 6 months or more in the previous year.

Nearly 15% of the patients reported symptoms of dyspepsia, 6.2% had ulcer-like dyspepsia, 6.1% had dysmotility-like dyspepsia, and 9.4% had reflux dyspepsia. Also, 8.9% of patients had IBS symptoms, and 6.2% reported both dyspepsia and IBS.

Of the patients with IBS, 70% also had functional dyspepsia. Of the subjects with dyspepsia, 43% also had IBS, the study showed.

The association between the two syndromes was much greater than expected by chance (kappa = 0.48), Dr. Tuteja reported.

Both IBS and the overlap syndrome were more common in women, but these differences were not significant (P>0.27). There was no association between any of the disorders and alcohol or Aspirin use (P>0.19).

The people who reported symptoms of both disorders or symptoms of IBS were much more likely to consult a physician about their problems than those with dyspepsia, the study showed. Thirty-three percent of those with both dyspepsia and IBS symptoms went to the doctor in the previous year, compared with 17% of patients with dyspepsia alone and 31% with IBS alone.

"Physicians need to realise that many patients seeking care for gastrointestinal symptoms are likely to have more than one clinical disorder," Dr. Tuteja said.

[Study title: Overlap of Functional Dyspepsia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome in a Community Sample. Abstract 301]