Rectal Visceral Sensitivity in Women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome without Psychiatric Comorbidity Compared with Healthy Volunteers

Table 1

Clinical and psychometric characteristics of 38 IBS patients without comorbid psychiatric disorders, 11 IBS patients with comorbid phobic anxiety and, 9 healthy volunteers. Values are mean ± SD, if not otherwise stated.

	IBS patients		Healthy volunteers
	Without psychiatric disorders	With phobic anxiety
Age	32.1 ± 8.1*	33.7 ± 6.1*	24.2 ± 2.8
Body mass index (kg/m^2)	23.8 ± 4.8	24.6 ± 5.6	22.8 ± 2.3
HAD anxiety	5.8 ± 3.1	7.1 ± 3.4
HAD depression	3.0 ± 3.4	2.7 ± 1.8
Duration of present	11.9 ± 10.8	10.1 ± 11.2
episode (years)
VAS score	6.0 ± 1.1	6.2 ± 1.2
(physicians assessment)
VAS score	6.5 ± 1.5	6.9 ± 1.0
(self-assessment)
Diarrhoea-predominant	47%	44%
Alternating stool habits	53%	56%

^∗𝑃<.001 from healthy volunteers.