[Relation between irritable bowel syndrome symptoms and depressive symptoms in hospitalized patients]

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and depression are frequent disorders in medical practice. There is a high frequency of psychiatric diagnosis in IBS. The objectives of this study are to describe prevalences of lower gastrointestinal symptoms (IBS) and of depressive symptoms on hospitalized patients in Arzobispo Loayza Hospital and to study the relationship between those symptoms. We did a transversal study of prevalence of lower gastrointestinal symptoms and of depressive symptoms and a case-control analysis to study the relationship between the already described symptoms. We interviewed 282 patients, and in every interview the Rome II criteria and Beck's self evaluation scale, were described. We found a 67.4% of cases with depressive symptoms and a 31.9% of IBS symptoms. There was found a significant association in 24.1% of patients between depressive and lower gastrointestinal symptoms (p<0.05). We conclude the depressive symptoms and lower gastrointestinal symptoms have a high frequency in hospitalized patients and that there is a significant association between them.