Cyberchondria, Psychological Well-Being, Anxiety, and Depression Levels in Female Patients with Irritable Bowel...

Background and Objectives: This study evaluated the interplay between cyberchondria, psychological distress, and symptom severity in female patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Materials and Methods: The study included 176 female participants: 86 patients with IBS and 90 controls. Participants completed a sociodemographic form, the IBS Symptom Severity Score (IBS-SSS), Cyberchondria Severity Scale-Short Form (CSS-12), Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results: Compared with healthy controls, women with IBS had significantly higher scores on the BAI (p < 0.001), BDI (p < 0.001), and CSS-12 Distress (p = 0.003), Reassurance (p < 0.001), and Compulsion (p < 0.001) subscales, whereas CSS-12 Excessiveness did not differ significantly between the groups (p = 0.211). Unexpectedly, PWBS scores were also significantly higher in women with IBS than in healthy controls (p < 0.001). IBS-SSS scores were significantly higher in the IBS group (p < 0.001). Within the IBS group, IBS-SSS was positively correlated with BAI (r = 0.255, p = 0.018) but not with BDI (r = 0.099, p = 0.365), while BDI was negatively correlated with PWBS (r = -0.320, p = 0.003). PWBS showed a weak positive correlation with CSS-12 Excessiveness (r = 0.215, p = 0.046), but not with the other CSS-12 dimensions. In ROC analysis, BAI (cut-off > 3) showed 88.4% sensitivity and 82.2% specificity; BDI (cut-off > 4), 82.6% and 86.7%; PWBS (cut-off > 33), 70.9% and 98.9%; and IBS-SSS (cut-off > 50), 96.5% and 88.9%, respectively. Conclusions: It was found that women with IBS had higher anxiety and depressive symptom scores compared with healthy female, and that there were differences in various dimensions of cyberchondria. The unexpectedly higher psychological well-being scores observed in the IBS group should be interpreted with caution. These findings point to the potential importance of psychological evaluation as part of a comprehensive assessment of IBS. Effect sizes for the between-group differences were large for the BAI and BDI (Cliff's delta = 0.74 for both), the CSS-12 Reassurance subscale (delta = 0.53), the PWBS (Cohen's d = 1.79) and the IBS-SSS (d = 2.84), and small for the Distress (delta = 0.28) and Compulsion (delta = 0.27) subscales.