Is there a causal link between psychological disorders and functional gastrointestinal disorders?

Is there a causal link between psychological disorders and functional gastrointestinal disorders? Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020 Jul 25;: Authors: Koloski N, Holtmann G, Talley N Abstract INTRODUCTION: Psychological distress is associated with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia (FD) but only evidence from prospective longitudinal and treatment studies can indicate whether the link between FGIDs and psychological distress is causal. Emerging evidence suggests underlying biological mechanisms may explain the association of psychological distress with FGIDs. AREAS COVERED: This review critically evaluates whether anxiety and/or depression and FGIDs are causally related including evidence for a temporal sequence, strength and specificity of the association, biological gradient and biological plausibility. EXPERT OPINION: Accumulating evidence suggests that psychological factors are causal for symptoms in a subset of FGID patients and not explained by health care seeking behaviour (brain-gut disorder). In other cases, psychological factors may arise secondary to intestinal disease (gut-brain disorder). Prospective population-based studies are needed in FGIDs other than IBS and FD to determine if a similar brain-gut and gut-brain syndrome exists. Treatment studies have not phenotyped FGIDs according to brain-gut versus gut-brain origins whi...
Source: Expert Review of Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Tags: Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol Source Type: research