Authors: Simren M, Mansson A, Langkilde AM, Svedlund J, Abrahamsson H, Bengtsson U, Bjornsson ES.

Institution: Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Goteborg, Sweden. magnus.simren@medicine.gu.se

Background/Aims: Postprandial symptoms are common in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, existing studies have come to different conclusions about the role of food in the pathophysiology of IBS. We explored the prevalence of subjective food-related gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and its relationship to clinical characteristics and psychological factors in IBS.

Methods: 330 patients with IBS and 80 healthy volunteers completed a food questionnaire developed for this study. The subjects graded their subjective symptoms after 35 different foods and a food score was obtained by adding the item scores. The relationship between subjective food-related GI symptoms and referral status, IBS subgroup (predominant bowel pattern), sex, anxiety, depression and body mass index (BMI) was estimated.

Conclusion: A majority of IBS patients consider their symptoms to be related to meals. Especially foods rich in carbohydrates and fat cause problems. Nevertheless, the majority of IBS patients are normal or overweight.

Study link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11244249&query_hl=35

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