ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2006
Symptom interpretation and quality of life in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Guideline
- Initiating multi-strain probiotics is associated with clinically meaningful symptom relief, better quality of life, and fewer treatment escalations in IBS-D/IBS-M: a Chinese real-world propensity-matched cohort study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Efficacy of cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment for individuals living with symptoms associated with environmental factors (SAEF): protocol for a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- The Microbiome and Irritable Bowel Syndrome - A Review on the Pathophysiology, Current Research and Future Therapy.Frontiers in microbiology · 2019Review
- Parent Attributions of Ambiguous Symptoms in Their Children: A Preliminary Measure Validation in Parents of Children with Chronic Pain.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Article
- Cognitive behavioral approach to understanding irritable bowel syndrome.World journal of gastroenterology · 2014Review
- Evidence of overlapping genetic diathesis of panic attacks and gastrointestinal disorders in a sample of male twin pairs.Twin research and human genetics : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies · 2011Article
- Sources of emotional distress associated with diarrhea among late middle-age and older HIV-infected adults.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2010Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are often believed to attribute unexplained symptoms to physical disorders. We tested this hypothesis by assessing symptom interpretation, symptom severity, and quality of life in patients attending hospital gastroenterology clinics.
aimThe main aims of this study were: to assess the symptom attributional styles of hospital gastroenterological outpatients with IBS and non-IBS disorders in comparison with unselected patients attending their GP; to establish the relationships between attributional style, quality of life, and IBS severity score in hospital gastroenterology outpatients; and to test the hypothesis that the IBS severity score correlates with a somatising style of symptom attribution. DESIGN OF STUDY: Systematic quantitative analysis.
settingGeneral practice and gastroenterology outpatient clincs.
methodPatients attending hospital gastroenterology clinics were recruited prospectively and completed validated questionnaires. These were the Medical Outcome Survey (MOS SF-36), the IBS Severity Score, and the Symptom Interpretation Questionnaire (SIQ). The latter measures the tendency to interpret somatic symptoms in three ways: as a physical disorder (somatising attributional style), as an emotional response to stress (psychologising attributional style), or as a normal experience (normalising attributional style). The diagnosis of IBS was based on the Rome II criteria; the control groups comprised gastroenterology outpatients with non-IBS diagnoses and unselected patients attending general practice.
resultsQuality of life in IBS patients attending hospital outpatients (n = 32, male:female ratio 9:23) was not significantly different from that of non-IBS patients (n = 70, male:female ratio 32:38). In all patient groups, the normalising style of symptom interpretation predominated; psychologising styles correlated with impaired quality of life in the mental health domains. In IBS patients, the tendency to seek a psychological explanation for physical symptoms correlated significantly with the severity of the abdominal pain.
conclusionsSymptom interpretation does not differ between IBS and non-IBS patients referred to hospital gastroenterology clinics. The tendency to attribute somatic symptoms to a physical disorder does not explain why only a minority of IBS subjects seek medical attention. The idea that most IBS patients are committed to a somatic explanation of symptoms appears to be a myth.
Indexed as
Identifiers
16464326PMC1828218What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.