The correlation of depression and gastric dysrhythmia in functional dyspepsia

Psychologic factors in functional dyspepsia have been discussed in many previous articles. However, the relationship between depression and functional dyspepsia is still obscure. We investigated the impact of depression on clinical symptoms and gastric dysrhythmia in functional dyspepsia. Thirty-nine patients with functional dyspepsia and 18 healthy subjects were included. Patients were investigated with clinical symptoms assessment, Zung's self-rating depression scale, and electrogastrography. Patients with functional dyspepsia were divided into two groups: 21 patients with depression and 18 patients without depression. The depressed patients had similar total gastrointestinal symptom severity scores compared with the nondepressed patients, but with higher total symptom frequency scores (p < 0.05). With regards to symptoms, the depressed patients had higher abdominal fullness severity and frequency scores and nausea frequency scores. The patients with functional dyspepsia had a lower percentage of normal slow wave in both the fasting and fed states and a higher percentage of bradygastria in the fasting state and tachygastria in the postprandial state (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the percentage of bradygastria or tachygastria between the depressed and nondepressed patients. There was no correlation between the specific type of electrogastrographic abnormality and the presence or absence of depression in functional dyspepsia patients.