Quality of life and depression in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Introduction: While irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is not life-threatening for most, it has enormous influence on quality of life (QOL) and mental health. Aim: To evaluate the association between QOL and depressive symptoms in IBS patients. Material and methods: A total of 87 patients and 56 healthy subjects were enrolled consecutively. All participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires: an IBS-specific quality of life (IBS-QOL) questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory questionnaire (BDI). Results: Mean BDI score was higher in IBS group than in controls. IBS-QOL score was significantly lower in IBS patients compared to the control group, in all IBS-QOL domains: dysphoria (DY), interference with activity (IN), body image (BI), health worry (HW), food avoidance (FA), social relation (SR), and sexual (SX) and relationship (RL) issues. QOL DY, IN, and BI scores and overall score were significantly lower in women with IBS compared to men. We found that BDI score was significantly negatively correlated with IBS-QOL score in the domain of DY, IN, HW, FA, SR, and RL scores and overall QOL score. We also found a negative correlation between older age and health worry. RL and IN QOL scores represented the highest correlation with BDI score. Conclusions: Irritable bowel syndrome is connected with impaired patient quality of life and high prevalence of depression with high correlation rate of both parameter scores. Assessment of depression and QOL should be provided during patient visits in outpatients clinics.