The Influence of Depression on Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Women

Cho, Kyung Ran; Lee, Oh Young; Yoon, Dae Hyun; Lim, Seon Hee; Park, Min Jung; Yim, Jeong Yoon; Kim, Young Sun; Kim, Chung Hyeon; Kim, Dong Hee; Yang, Sun Young

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Patients with unexplained gastrointestinal symptoms often have psychiatric diseases, but most of the studies about the association of gastrointestinal symptoms and psychiatric illness were undertaken in the clinical setting of referred hospital. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between depression and gastrointestinal symptoms in addition to endoscopic findings in women of healthcare screening.
METHODS
Total 8169 women were included in this study with either an upper or lower endoscopy for a health check-up and completed questionnaires including Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) for evaluation of depression and a list of 13 gastrointestinal symptoms. BDI score > or =16 was defined as depressed and <16, as non-depressed.
RESULTS
Among them, 1460 women were depressed, and 6709 women were non-depressed. There were no significant differences in upper and lower endoscopic findings between two groups. Depressed women complained of gastrointestinal symptoms more frequently compared to non-depressed women (77.2% vs. 56.9%) and this difference was observed in all 13 gastrointestinal symptoms. The incidence of women complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms increased as BDI score increased; Fifty-one percent of them had gastrointestinal symptoms in BDI score <10, 69% in 10~15, 77% in 16~23, and 78% in > or =24. Depressed women had more chance of having gastrointestinal symptoms by 2.6 folds compared to non-depressed women (CI 2.3-3.0).
CONCLUSIONS
Although depressed women did not have specific endoscopic findings compared with non-depressed women, they complained of gastrointestinal symptoms more frequently, according to the severity of depression.