Original articlesSuicidal ideation in patients with irritable bowel syndrome
Section snippets
Methods
Questionnaires were distributed by 1 of 2 researchers (V.M., L.H.) consecutively to follow-up IBS patients during their attendance at our tertiary and secondary care clinics and to patients in primary care who had never been referred to a hospital specialist for their gastrointestinal problem. In the UK hospital care system, tertiary care patients are defined as those who have been referred from other specialists for a further opinion as opposed to secondary care referrals, who initially come
Results
All patient groups were comparable in terms of their demography with the exception of age and unemployment caused by their disease. With regard to unemployment, there was a stepwise increase in this parameter in the IBS patients, with values of 0%, 13%, and 25% for the pIBS, sIBS, and tIBS groups, respectively (P < .001). The value for the IBD group was 17%. With respect to age, the pIBS patients were slightly younger than the other groups, but adjusting all the comparisons for age made no
Discussion
This study clearly shows that tIBS patients have an extraordinarily high rate of suicidal ideation, which is far in excess of that observed in a comparable group of patients suffering from active IBD. Even secondary care IBS patients are troubled by this problem as much as individuals with active IBD. Symptom severity and interference with life as a result of the inadequacy of treatment seem to be important factors leading to this situation.
There is considerable debate about the relationship
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