TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of stress in symptom exacerbation among IBS patients
AU - Blanchard, Edward B.
AU - Lackner, Jeffrey M.
AU - Jaccard, James
AU - Rowell, Dianna
AU - Carosella, Ann Marie
AU - Powell, Catherine
AU - Sanders, Kathryn
AU - Krasner, Susan
AU - Kuhn, Eric
PY - 2008/2
Y1 - 2008/2
N2 - Over 200 treatment-seeking irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients completed 4 weeks of daily prospective measures of stress and gastrointestinal symptoms as well as retrospective measures of stress (life events over 12 months, hassles over 1 month). We also obtained the stress measures on 66 nonill controls. Irritable bowel syndrome patients report more frequent hassles than controls and a greater stress impact than controls. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the data were consistent with a model of robust autocorrelation effects of both week-to-week gastrointestinal (GI) symptom indices (r=.84) and stress indices (r=.73), as well as strong concurrent effects of stress on IBS symptoms (r=.90) and vice versa (r=.41). The data also were consistent with a model where there were effects of stress in Week t upon GI symptoms in Week t+1 and t+2, but they were mediated through the concurrent week effects and/or autocorrelation effects. There were no statistically significant independent pathways from stress in Week t to GI symptoms in Week t+1 or t+2. Thus, there is more support for a reciprocal relation between stress and symptoms than there is for a causal relation.
AB - Over 200 treatment-seeking irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients completed 4 weeks of daily prospective measures of stress and gastrointestinal symptoms as well as retrospective measures of stress (life events over 12 months, hassles over 1 month). We also obtained the stress measures on 66 nonill controls. Irritable bowel syndrome patients report more frequent hassles than controls and a greater stress impact than controls. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the data were consistent with a model of robust autocorrelation effects of both week-to-week gastrointestinal (GI) symptom indices (r=.84) and stress indices (r=.73), as well as strong concurrent effects of stress on IBS symptoms (r=.90) and vice versa (r=.41). The data also were consistent with a model where there were effects of stress in Week t upon GI symptoms in Week t+1 and t+2, but they were mediated through the concurrent week effects and/or autocorrelation effects. There were no statistically significant independent pathways from stress in Week t to GI symptoms in Week t+1 or t+2. Thus, there is more support for a reciprocal relation between stress and symptoms than there is for a causal relation.
KW - Irritable bowel syndrome
KW - Stress
KW - Stress and irritable bowel syndrome
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2007.10.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2007.10.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 18222125
AN - SCOPUS:38349145689
SN - 0022-3999
VL - 64
SP - 119
EP - 128
JO - Journal of Psychosomatic Research
JF - Journal of Psychosomatic Research
IS - 2
ER -