title: Hypervigilance in irritable bowel syndrome compared with organic gastrointestinal disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients are suggested to selectively attend to gastrointestinal (GI) sensations compared with healthy controls. However, it remains unclear whether there are differences between IBS and other chronic GI disorders. We aimed to evaluate the presence of hypervigilance towards the GI tract in IBS compared with patients with organic GI diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  We included 36 IBS patients and 40 age- and gender-matched patients with organic GI disease. They completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and underwent three tests: (1) word association-write down as many words as possible representing signs of disease; (2) word recognition (tachistoscope)-four categories of words (positive affects, non-GI symptoms, GI symptoms, negative affects) displayed for increasing time until identified; (3) word recollection-memorize words (10 GI symptoms, 10 positive affects, 10 negative affects).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The word-association task did not show group differences. IBS patients were significantly faster than organic GI patients at recognizing words representing GI symptoms (21 vs. 26 ms; P=.04) and negative affects (27 vs. 34 ms; P=.03), but also tended to be faster at recognizing positive affects (24 vs. 29 ms; P=.08) and non-GI symptoms (22 vs. 27 ms; P=.2). Both groups remembered a similar number of words, but IBS patients tended to recall more incorrect GI words than organic patients (1.3 vs. 1.0; P=.06). There were no group differences in HADS scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared to patients with organic GI disease, IBS patients seem to be hypervigilant for information regarding GI sensations and maybe also negative information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden. iris.posserud@vgregion.se
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Posserud
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Svedlund
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wallin
authors.forename: Magnus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simrén
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D012677:Sensation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult