Irritable bowel syndrome: associated with migraine, depression and fibromyalgia

People suffering from irritable bowel syndrome would present an increased also suffer from migraine, depression and fibromyalgia risk, suggests a study published in the journal "BMC Gastroenterology."
The irritable bowel syndrome, for which no physical cause could be clearly identified and whose occurrence is often attributed to stress manifests itself in a myriad of functional digestive disorders (constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating).

Small studies have suggested that patients with this syndrome have an increased suffer from other disorders such as migraine, depression and fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic diffuse muscle pain risk. The hypothesis that these disorders represent different manifestations of the same underlying biological cause, developed over 15 years, is based on the observation of a positive effect of antidepressants on patients with bowel syndrome irritable. These conditions have sometimes been classified as "affective disorders" or "functional somatic syndromes".

However, no extensive study with a control group has confirmed this hypothesis so far, the authors note.

Alexander Cole, of Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted a study of 97,593 patients with irritable bowel syndrome and controls 27,402 people.

By comparing the frequency of migraine, depression and fibromyalgia patients and participants in the control group, the researchers found that the risk of suffering from at least one of these conditions has proven 60% higher among people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. In particular, the increased risk of depression was 40% to 80% of fibromyalgia and migraine 60%.

People suffering from irritable bowel syndrome would present an increased ranging from 40 to 80% also suffer from migraine, depression and fibromyalgia risk, and the authors conclude.