Basic—Alimentary TractPatients With Irritable Bowel Syndrome Have Altered Emotional Modulation of Neural Responses to Visceral Stimuli
Section snippets
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
IBS patients meeting the Rome III criteria with an established diagnosis were recruited from 2 collaborating gastroenterology outpatient clinics and 1 gastroenterologist practice. General exclusion criteria included age <18 years and >50 years; body mass index ≥30; any concurrent medical condition, including neurologic, cardiovascular, immunologic; endocrine conditions; or medications known to affect the parameters of interest (eg, neuroleptics, antipsychotics, β-adrenergic medications). All
Participants
Fifteen IBS patients and 13 healthy controls participated. Because 1 healthy subject withdrew from participation after the second study day, full data sets were available from 12 healthy women serving as the control group. IBS patients did not differ in sociodemographic parameters from controls, with the exception of age and, expectedly demonstrated higher scores on various psychologic scales (Table 1). Two patients had a previous clinical diagnosis of depression. Based on the HADS, 1 patient
Discussion
This is the first study to assess effects of emotional context on behavioral and neural responses to visceral stimuli in IBS patients compared with controls. In summary, we found that IBS patients experienced markedly more distension-induced pain and discomfort irrespective of emotional condition, despite unaltered rectal sensory thresholds. IBS patients further demonstrated altered emotional modulation of distension-induced neural activation in anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and prefrontal
Acknowledgments
The authors thank A. Scholle and A. de Greiff for their excellent technical support in conducting this project.
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Conflicts of interest The authors disclose no conflicts.
Funding Supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG]) (DFG EL 236/5-2) (to S.E. and E.R.G.).