Minor psychiatric disorders and objective diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease

Symptoms may be unreliable to diagnose gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in patients with minor psychiatric disorders (MPD). This study aims to evaluate the influence of MPD in the diagnosis of GERD.

We prospectively studied 245 patients (based on a sample size calculation) with suspected GERD. All patients underwent manometry and pH monitoring and MPD evaluation based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Based on the results of the pH monitoring, patients were classified as GERD + (n = 136, 55% of the total, mean age 46 years, 47% females) or GERD - (n = 109, 45% of the total, mean age 43 years, 60% females). The mean HADS score for GERD + and GERD - for anxiety was 7.8 and 8.5, respectively (p = 0.8) and for depression was 5.4 and 6.1, respectively (p = 0.1). DeMeester score (DS) did not correlate with total HADS score (p = 0.08) or depression domain (p = 0.9) but there was a negative correlation between DS and anxiety level (p < 0.001). A significant threshold accuracy value for HADS to diagnose GERD was not found on receiver operating characteristics curve analysis.

Almost half of the patients evaluated for GERD did not have the disease on objective evaluation. GERD + and GERD - patients had similar levels of MPD. However, the amount of reflux correlated negatively with the severity of anxiety. Symptoms and HADS cannot accurately diagnose or exclude GERD. pH monitoring should be more liberally used especially in patients with high levels of anxiety.