Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34344311›Full record

ArticleBMC gastroenterology2021

Pain and psyche in a patient with irritable bowel syndrome: chicken or egg? A time series case report.

Felicitas Engel, Tatjana Stadnitski, Esther Stroe-Kunold, Sabrina Berens, Rainer Schaefert, Beate Wild

Open access · goldAbstract readCase Reports
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC gastroenterology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 24% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Beyond Chronic Stress: Daily Stress Is Associated With Symptoms in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Felicitas EngelDepartment of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Tatjana StadnitskiDepartment of Quantitative Methods in Psychology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
Esther Stroe-KunoldDepartment of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Sabrina BerensDepartment of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Rainer SchaefertDepartment of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Beate WildDepartment of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany. Beate.Wild@med.uni-heidelberg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2279-8135
Heidelberg University · DEUniversität Ulm · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) appears to have a bidirectional interaction with both depressive and anxiety-related complaints. However, it remains unclear how exactly the psychological complaints, at the individual level, are related to somatic symptoms on a daily basis. This single case study investigates how somatic and psychological variables are temporally related in a patient with irritable bowel syndrome. CASE REPORT: The patient was a woman in her mid-twenties with an IBS diagnosis. She reported frequent soft bowel movements (5-6 times per day), as well as flatulence and abdominal pain. She resembled a typical IBS patient; however, a marked feature of the patient was her high motivation for psychosomatic treatment as well as her willingness to try new strategies regarding the management of her symptoms. As an innovative approach this single case study used a longitudinal, observational, time series design. The patient answered questions regarding somatic and psychological variables daily over a period of twelve weeks with an online diary. The diary data was analysed using an autoregressive (VAR) modeling approach. Time series analyses showed that in most variables, strong same-day correlations between somatic (abdominal pain, daily impairment) and psychological time series (including coping strategies) were present. The day-lagged relationships indicated that higher values in abdominal pain on one day were predictive of higher values in the psychological variables on the following day (e.g. nervousness, tension, catastrophizing, hopelessness). The use of positive thinking as a coping strategy was helpful in reducing the pain on the following days.

conclusionIn the presented case we found a high correlation between variables, with somatic symptoms temporally preceding psychological variables. In addition, for this patient, the use of positive thoughts as a coping strategy was helpful in reducing pain.

Indexed as

Irritable Bowel SyndromeAbdominal PainAdaptation, PsychologicalAnxietyFemaleFlatulenceHumansCase reportFunctional gastrointestinal disordersIrritable bowel syndromeSingle case studyTime series analysis

Identifiers

PMID34344311
PMCPMC8336402
OpenAlexW3192457898

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.